128 



SINGING BIRDS — OSCINES. 



ish-orange ; the liimler pnrfs purer ash ; the roc;ion a))oiit the vent white. Primaries and 

 tail feathers i)Uiml)eous black, especially towards the tips ; the tail with a tenuinal band 

 of yellow. A narrow frontal line passing backward and involving the eye, and extemling 

 above and behind it, chin and upper part of throat black. Tips of the secondary 

 coverts, and a spot on the end of the outer webs of all the quiUs, white ; those on the 

 inner primaries glossed with yellow. Secondaries with red horny tips, like sealing-wax. 

 Side of the lower jaw whitish. Length, 8.00 ; e.xtent, 13.75 ; wing, 4.50 ; tail, 3.00. Iris 

 brown ; bill and feet black. 



Hah. Northern parts of both continents. Seen in the United States only in severe 

 winters, except along the great lakes. In the Mississippi Valley, south to Fort Riley, 

 Kansas ; Colorado Valley to Fort Mojave, lat. 35°. 



This veiy beautiful Lircl is one of tlie most boreal, in its preference of a 

 residence, of any of the smaller birds, rarely descending south of lat. 45°, 

 even in the cold of the Eastern winter climate, and ranging entirely aroimd 

 tlie arctic circle. It is probable, ho-\vever, that they reside dming summer 

 aliout the summits of some of the loftiest mountains of the interior ranges, 

 if not of the Sierra Nevada, as I have seen them in September at Fort 

 Laramie, and the specimen obtained on the Colorado was a straggler from 

 some neighboring mountains. It appeared on January lOth, after a stormy 

 period wliich had whitened the tops of the mountains with snow, and was 

 alone, feeding on the berries of the mistletoe, when I shot it. It made no 

 noise, except a sort of hissing cry, and though called " chatterer," it is usually 

 a very silent bird. When in flocks, which are sometimes enormous, they, 

 however, make a loud twittering, and are so irregular in their wanderings 

 as to excite great curiosity when they appear in the more southern parts of 

 Europe. Their food consists chiefly of berries, and of insects during sum- 

 mer. 



