182 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
indistinguishable from the call-notes of those birds. Their 
song and their twitters, though distinct from those of the 
Goldfinch, are yet much like them, but their twitters, most 
often uttered as they fly, are much louder and less musical. 
They have also a very characteristic note, resembling the word 
wee, uttered in a peculiar tone with a rising inflection, and, 
moreover, if I remember correctly, a loud and rather unmusical 
trill. 
V. 4XGIOTHUS 
(A) tryarius. ‘“Red-poll.” Red-poll Linnet. Lesser ‘‘ Red- 
poll.” 
(Another irregular visitant to New England, in the winter- 
season only, being in some years very common and in others 
altogether absent, at least in Massachusetts. ) 
(a). About 54 inches long. Upper parts, flaxen, dark- 
streaked. Beneath, whitish, more or less dusky-streaked. 
Wings and tail dusky, with white edgings ; the former with two 
narrow whitish bars. Crown carmine; ‘‘rump white or rosy, 
always streaked with dusky.” In the mature ¢ the breast is 
bright rosy, and the under tail-coverts paler and streaked. 
[ Dr. Coues has endeavored to establish one or two varie- 
ties of this species, which it is perhaps necessary to accept. 
They are var. fucescens, Dusky Red-poll, a darker form; with 
‘‘rump scarcely lighter,” and ‘sides heavily streaked,” which 
Dr. Coues supposes may occur from the wearing of the feathers, 
and var. ewilipes, American Mealy Red-poll, with flaxen paled 
to whitish, and rump unstreaked in adults, “representing,” 
says Dr. Coues, ‘‘the true Mealy Redpoll, A. canescens, of 
Greenland.” | 
(b). The ‘Red-polls” breed in Arctic Countries on the 
ground, and lay four or five eggs, which are light greenish-blue, 
with a few brown spots, and which average about -65 X *50 
of an inch. 
(c). The ‘Red-polls” are occasionally the most abundant 
of our winter-birds, but, on the other hand, several successive 
winters often pass, without their occurrence in Massachusetts. 
