498 NORTH AMEEICAN BIRDS. 



The habits and appearance of the birds observed in Europe appear identi- 

 cal with those of our own. Mr. Yarrell states that of all birds these are the 

 most easily tamed, and can be readily made to breed in confinement. In 

 Scotland and in parts of England it is resident throughout the year, in the 

 summer retiring to the bases of the mountains, and there breeding in the un- 

 derwood that skirts the banks of the mountain streams. It nests in bushes 

 or low trees, such as the alder and the willow. These are constructed of 

 mosses and the stems of dry grasses, intermingled with down from the catkins 

 of the willow, and lined with the same, making them soft and warm. The 

 young are produced late in the season, and are seldom able to fly before the 

 first of July. The parent birds are devoted in their attachment. Pennant 

 relates that in one instance where this bird was sitting on four eggs, she was 

 so tenacious of her nest as to suffer him to take her off with his hand, and 

 after having been released she still refused to leave it. In the winter they 

 descend to the lower grounds, and there feed on the buds of the birch and 

 alder, to reach which they are obliged, like the Titmice, to hang from the 

 ends of the branches, with their backs downward. So intent are they on 

 their work that they are easily taken alive by means of a long stick smeared 

 with birdlime. Mr. Selby states that its notes during the breeding-season, 

 though not delivered in a continuous song, are sweet and pleasing. Captain 

 Scoresby relates that in his approach to Spitzbergen several of these birds 

 alighted on Ins ship. They were so wearied with their long journey as to be 

 easily caught l)y the hand. The distance of the nearest point of Norway 

 renders it difficult to imagine how so delicate a bird can perform this journey, 

 or why it should seek such a cold and barren country. European eggs are 

 five in number, of a pale bluish-green, spotted with orange-brown, princi- 

 pally about the larger end. They measure .65 by .50 of an inch. 



American eggs of this species average .65 by .53 of an inch. Their 

 color is a light bluish-white, which varies considerably in the depth of its 

 shading, and this tinge is exceedingly fugitive, it lieing difficult to preserve 

 it even in a cabinet. The eggs are generally and finely dotted with a rusty- 

 brown, and are of a rather rounded oval shape. 



^giothus canescens, Cabanis. 



MEALY RED-POLL. 



Linaria canescens, Gould, " Bird-s Europe, pi . cxciii." Linota canescens, Boxap. List, 183S. 

 Acanthis canescens, Bon. Conspectus, 1850, 541. — Bon. & Schlegel, Mod. Lo.xiens, 

 1850, 47, tab. li. ^ — Ross, Ed. Phil. Jour. 1861, 163. ^giothus canescens, C.\b.\nis, 

 Mus. Hcnn. 1851, 161. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 429. — CouES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 

 388. — Samuels, 295. "Fringilla borcalis, Temminck, 1835. Not of Vieillot." 

 Bonaparte. J Fringilla borealis, AuD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 87, pi. cccc. ? Linaria 

 horealis, AuD. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 120, pi. clxxviii. " Linarict hornemanni, Holboll, 

 Kroyer Nat. Tidskr. 1843." .■Egiothus exilipcs, CoUES, Pr. A. N. Sc. Nov. 1861, 385. 

 — Elliot, lUust. N. Am. Birds, I, pi. ix. 



