a 
294 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
EGIOTHUS LINARIA. — Cabanis. 
The Lesser Redpoll. 
Fringilla linaria, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 322. Aud. Orn. Biog., LV. 
1838) 533. 
Ai giothus linaria, Cabanis. Mus. Hein. (1851), 161. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Above light-yellowish, each feather streaked with dark-brown; crown dark- 
crimson; upper part of breast and sides of the body tinged with a lighter tint of the 
same; the rump and under tail coverts also similar, but still less vivid, and with 
dusky streaks; rest of under parts white, streaked on the sides with brown; loral 
region and chin dusky; cheeks (brightest over the eye), and a narrow front, 
whitish; wing feathers edged externally, and tail feathers all round with white; two 
yellowish-white bands across the wing coverts; secondaries and tertiaries edged 
broadly with the same; bill yellowish, tinged with brown on the culmen and 
gonys; the basal bristles brown, reaching over half the bill. 
The specimen described above is a male in winter dress. The spring plumage 
has much more of the red. The female winter specimens lack the rose of the 
under parts and rump; the breast is streaked across with dusky. 
Length, five and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, three and ten one-hundredths 
inches ; tail, two and seventy one-hundredths inches. 
This species is a pretty common winter visitor in all parts 
of New England. It congregates in large flocks, which 
frequent old fields and pastures and stubble-fields, and feed 
on the seeds of weeds and grasses. It has, while with us, 
the note and general habits of the Goldfinch and Pine 
Finch, and might easily, at a little distance, be mistaken for 
those birds. They seem fond of the seeds of the white 
birch ; and they cluster so thick on a branch of this tree, 
while securing the seeds, that I have killed as many as a 
dozen at a shot. Mr. Selby’s account of the nest and eggs 
is as follows : — 
“Tt is only known in the southern parts of Britain as a winter 
visitant ; and is at that period gregarious, and frequently taken, in 
company with the other species, by the bird-catchers, by whom it is 
called the Stone Redpoll. In the northern counties of England, 
and in Scotland and its isles, it is resident through the year. It 
retires, during the summer, to the underwood that covers the bases 
of many of our mountains and hills, and that often fringes the 
