512 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



uncertain. My friend, Mr. Oakes, of Ipswich, has seen 

 them in large flocks in that vicinity in winter. With 

 us they are rare, though their favorite food is abundant. 

 They are by no means shy, and permit a near approach 

 without taking alarm, often fluttering among the branches 

 in which they feed, hanging sometimes by the cones, and 

 occasionally uttering notes very similar to those of the 

 American Goldfinch. Early in March they proceed to 

 the North, but their summer dress and breeding habits 

 are wholly unknown. 



The length of this species is said to be 4 inches; and the alar ex- 

 tension 8. Rump and tail-coverts yellowish, spotted with dark- 

 brown; sides, under the wings, cream-color, with long streaks of 

 black ; breast light flaxen, with small pointed spots of blackish. Bill 

 dull horn-color. Legs purplish-brown. Irids hazel. 



LESSER RED-POLL. 



{Fringiila linaria, Lin. Wilson, iv. p. 42. pi. .30. fig. 4. [young 

 male.] and ix. p. 126. Phil. Museum, No. 6579.) 



Sp. Charact. — Above greyish, inclined to rufous, and spotted with 

 dusky ; below, and rump, pale crimson, approaching to white on 

 the vent ; crown deep crimson ; frontlet and chin black ; wings 

 and tail dusky ; bill very sharply and slenderly pointed. — Female 

 without red on the rump, the throat black ; the breast generally 

 whitish ; belly with large dusky spots. — In the young, the space 

 round the bill is cinereous, the lower parts pale rufous, and spot- 

 ted, with tv.^o rufous bands upon the wing. 



This elegant species, which only pays us occasional 

 and transient winter visits, at distant intervals, is an in- 

 habitant of the whole arctic circle to the confines of Sibe- 

 ria, and is found in Kamtschatka and Greenland, as well 

 as the colder parts of Europe. Arriving in roving flocks 

 from the northern wilds of Canada, they are seen, at times, 

 in the western parts of the state of New York with the 

 fall of the first deep snow, and occasionally proceed east- 



