294 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



JGGIOTHUS LINAEIA. — Cabanis. 



The Lesser Redpoll. 



Fringilla linaria, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 322. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. 

 (1838) 533. 



jEgiothus linaria, Cabanis. Mus. Hein. (1851), 161. 



Description. 



Above light- j^ellowish, each feather streaked with dark-brown; crown dark- 

 crimson; upper part of breast and sides of the body tinged with a lighter tint of the 

 same; the rump and under tail coverts also similar, but still less vivid, and with 

 dusky streaks ; rest of under parts white, streaked on the sides with brown ; loral 

 region and chin dusky; cheeks (brightest over the eye), and a narrow front, 

 whitish; wing feathei-s edged externally, and tail feathers all round with white; two 

 yellowish-white bands across the wing coverts; secondaries and tertiaries edged 

 broadly with the same; bill yellowish, tinged with brown on the culmen aud 

 gonys ; the basal bristles brown, reaching over half the bill. 



The specimen described above is a male in winter dress. The spring plumage 

 has much more of the red. The female winter specimens lack the rose of the 

 under parts and rump; the breast is streaked across with dusky. 



Length, five and fifty one-hundredths inches ; wing, three and ten one-hundredths 

 inches; tail, two and seventy one-hundredths inches. 



This species is a pretty common winter visitor in all parts 

 of New England. It congregates in large flocks, which 

 frequent old fields and pastures and stubble-fields, and feed 

 on the seeds of weeds and grasses. It has, while with us, 

 the note and general habits of the Goldfinch and Pine 

 Finch, and might easily, at a little distance, be mistaken for 

 those birds. They seem fond of the seeds of the white 

 birch ; and they cluster so thick on a branch of this tree, 

 while securing the seeds, that I have killed as many as a 

 dozen at a shot. Mr. Selby's account of the nest and eggs 

 is as follows : — 



" It is only known in the southern parts of Britain as a winter 

 visitant ; and is at that period gregarious, and frequently taken, in 

 company with the other species, by the bird-catchers, by whom it is 

 called the Stone Redpoll. In the northern counties of England, 

 and in Scotland and its isles, it is resident through the year. It 

 retires, during the summer, to the underwood that covers the bases 

 of many of our mountains and .hills, and that often fringes the 



