92 THE Birps Asout Us. 
They are found (the Common Cross-bill) in Penn- 
sylvania all the year round, but only in a mountainous 
region. Occasionally a large flock will appear in the 
valley of the Delaware in the winter and scatter 
among the evergreens in the villages; but as soon 
as seen the village paper reports them, and that means 
waging a war of extermination. 
The true Linnets, or Redpolls, are other arctic birds 
that occasionally come well southward if there is a 
severe winter, and it has been that this even was not 
essential to bring them. It is said to be a pretty com- 
mon and regular winter visitor to Northern Pennsyl- 
vania. Probably much depends upon the character 
of the woodland tracts. I believe when our upper 
Delaware Valley had its original pine and hemlock 
forest that a great many of these “irregular” and rare 
birds were common, and a constant feature of the win- 
ter or summer as the case might be. So faras the red- 
polls are concerned, I have seen flocks of from fifty to 
ahundred suddenly come upon the scene, and then after 
a brief stay mount upward and make off, not to be seen 
again perhaps all that winter. If it is correct that they 
are regular visitors to Pennsylvania, it is not strange 
that occasionally a flock should wander to the Dela- 
ware Valley, not more than one hundred miles away. 
At last we come to a common and common-sensed 
bird that not only lives where the bulk of humanity 
does, but stays about all the year round. If you 
have the courage to go into a snow-clad field, where 
a few seed-bearing bushes and rank grasses project 
beyond the glittering plain, it is not improbable that 
you will see a few dusty yellow and blackish birds 
