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Bird -Lore 



The position of these wing-bars is such that a sHght puffing of the breast 

 and side feathers, on the one hand, and of the scapulars, on the other, — a com- 

 mon practice with birds in general, — is apt to cast them into shadow; while a 

 greater, but still not uncommon, puffing or fluffing out of the feathers may 

 quite conceal the coverts, one and all. Hence the extent of the bars, or, for that 

 matter, of any other marking, when still confined to these coverts, is not neces- 

 sarily of the first importance. In this connection, see an excellent photograph, 

 by Clifford H. Pangburn, of a Redpoll — page 273 of Bird-Lore, November- 

 December, 1909. This picture illustrates how the first wing-bar (tips of the 

 middle coverts) may be nearly or quite concealed by the scapulars alone. 



As for Redpolls in particular, the popular notion that their wing-bars are 

 of no importance as field-marks is a mistake, nor do I know a single species 

 of bird fairly easy to approach, having such wing-bars, in which the latter 

 are not field-marks. 



However, it is certainly true that the Redpoll seems less given to display- 

 ing his wing-bars than, for example, does the Tree Sparrow. His small size, as 

 compared with that of our other winter Finches, and his association usually 

 with the very severest of winter weather, suggest that he may be more habitu- 

 ally "puffed out with the cold" — an expressive, if not a strictly scientific 

 phrase — than the others. Therefore, I venture the opinion that the visibility of 

 the Redpoll's wing-bars in the field is, after all, largely a matter of temperature. 



WIXGS OF TREE SPARROW TO SHOW VARIATION IN" KAR^ 



