50 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 66. 



rating over the snow-flooded stubble west. Dinner for me ended 

 right then and there. He is a poor ornithologist to whom a rare 

 bird oi^ new is not worth a dinner any day. Pineapple juice was no 

 longer nectar. I had lost my appetite. Snatching my field glass I 

 was in full chase after the already vanished floclv and overhauled 

 them in a piece of weedy corn stubble where they were feeding on 

 ragweed and grass seed with nervous haste and industry. 



There is a unifying will or impulse in most floclis of gregarious 

 birds, as every observer has noted ; but this mysterious instinct 

 seemed to be almost wanting in this Redpoll flock which, by esti- 

 mate, consisted of 250 or 300 birds. This will of the flock was at 

 the mercy of every individual will. If one bird lifted it was suffi- 

 cient to carry the whole body into the air. Thus it was set like a 

 hair trigger ready to go off at half-cock; and the wavering flight of 

 the individual — for it was wavering rather than undulating as in 

 the Goldfinch — was magnified by the flock so that it went like a 

 wind-blown streamer through the air. like a swirl of leaves or 

 whirl of snow flakes — a carmagnole in feathers. The rush of beat- 

 ing primaries and swift transition of color as the light struck them 

 at varying angles were a delight to eye and ear in the mouotony 

 of an unusually desolate winter. 



The bulk of this flock proved to be females and immatures. with 

 a sprinkling of males, and I fancied that I could pick out a few^ 

 three or four birds that by stronger coloring and slightly larger size 

 might belong to the larger and rarer species ; but specimens alone 

 could lay the doubtg in the case, and these I unfortunately failed to 

 secure. 



It would not be possible to find a more elegant picture than a clus- 

 ter of males with their dark red caps and white breasts stained with 

 the tint of peach blossoms asway on an old ragweed against the 

 snowy landscape. 



Since following the first flock it has been my privilege to battle 

 for hours in the happy, joyous vernal activity of R*MJpoll life, fol- 

 lowing them for) miles through difficult snows or over the moist sod- 

 den ground of January thaws. I saw one flock of a hundred or 

 more divide into two equal bands, one going* far west, the other east. 

 Coming up with the latter I beheld it go to pieces utterly. And it is 

 interesting to note in this connection that Redpolls have since been 

 noted by I's. 2's, 3's, or more, anywhere and evex'ywhere, alone or in 

 company with other birds as if they had really made themselves at 

 home. Thus several came daily to our door-yard with the Tree 

 Sparrow to feed. February 4 appeared our last record, but after 

 the ice storm of February 15-16 two females were seen under our 

 evergreens February 17. Not the severity of the storm but the short- 

 age of food supply over a vast area had sent these and other visito's 

 from the farther north to sojourn with us. 



