414 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETEST 237 part i 



crimson, and the chin spot is dull brownish-black. A few young 

 birds, even females, may acquire rosy breast feathers, but these are 

 characteristic of adult males. 



Continuing, Dwight adds that the first nuptial plumage is "ac- 

 quired by wear, through which much of the buff is lost, the birds 

 becoming darker and whiter with the crown spot a trifle brighter to 

 the eye, due to loss of grayish barbules of the red barbs." A com- 

 plete postnuptial molt brings the adult winter plumage. The adult 

 nuptial plumage, like the first nuptial plumage, is acquired by wear, 

 the rosy feathers of the male deepening in color by loss of the grayish 

 barbules and reduction of the whitish edgings. Female plumages 

 and molts correspond to those of the male, but the crown spot remains 

 duller and smaller. 



Food. — Availability is a powerful governing factor in the food 

 preferences of so wide-ranging a species. In winter the redpolls 

 that stay northward are largely dependent on the seeds of the amentif- 

 erous birches, alders, and willows. Southward they partake of a 

 wider variety of seeds from forbs and grasses in addition to their 

 usual staples, the lesser conifers. Grinnell (1947) has analyzed the 

 available data from the literature and foimd that the redpoll is known 

 to eat the seeds or parts of 41 genera of plants, and insects of 6 orders. 

 A series of 10 stomachs he collected at Churchill between June 7 and 

 17 provide a clear index to availability of foods because they con- 

 tained vegetable matter amounting to 41.2 percent (mostly seeds of 

 Ranunculus, Eriophorum, and Draba), gravel (58.8 percent) and no 

 animal matter. Insects were not plentiful that year before June 20. 



Like most seed-eating fringUlids, the redpoU takes insects when 

 they are abundant, especially when feeding the young. In the 

 sparsely settled expanses of its northland breeding ground, the redpoll 

 seldom comes into direct contact with man's agricultural activities. 

 When it does visit settled areas in winter, its weed-seed-eating habits 

 recommend it even to those who are not alive to its many other 

 charms. 



Tom J. Cade (1953) has suggested that this species "has a suffi- 

 ciently adventuresome disposition to utilize sub-nival situations" in 

 food-getting during winter, and that it is thus in possession of a trait 

 adapted to ensure survival under difficult winter conditions. Al- 

 though suggestive, his single observation of redpolls feeding in tunnels 

 formed by weeds otherwise buried in snow, provides no evidence that 

 the birds actually excavated these openings to get at food. To me, 

 one of the most impressive effects of snow storms at Indian House 

 Lake during the depth of winter was that as one alder-willow thicket 

 along shore was di'ifted over and made inaccessible to birds (chiefly 

 ptarmigan), another thicket was exhumed by the same winds. This 



