LESSER RED-POLL. 123 



mixed with tufts of wool, and warmly lined with feathers. The eggs 

 are usually four, white, sprinkled with specks of reddish. 



NOTE. 



Fringilla Linaria, Gmel. Syst. i., p 917, 29. F.Jlavirostris, Id. p. 915, 27. — L.\rii. 

 Ind. Orn. p. 438. No. 16, p. 458, No. 83.— ie Cabaret,BvFF. Ois.iv., p. 76. PI. 

 Enl. 485. — Bewick, i., p. 191. — Fauna Orcadensis, p. 64, 3. — Gros-ben Sizerin, 

 Temm. Man. d' Orn., p. 383. 



Contrary to the usual practice of Wilson, he omitted to furnish a 

 particular description of this species, accompanying its figure. But this 

 supplementary notice would not have been considered necessary, if our 

 author had not fallen into a mistake respecting the markings of the fe- 

 male, and the young male ; the former of which he describes as destitute 

 of the crimson on the forehead; and the latter not receiving that orna- 

 ment till the succeeding spring. When Wilson procured his specimens, 

 it was in the autumn, previously to their receiving their perfect winter 

 dress ; and he was never afterwards aware of his error, owing to the 

 circumstance of these birds seldom appearing in the neighborhood of 

 Philadelphia. Considerable flocks of them, however, having visited us 

 in the winter of 1813-14, we were enabled to procure several fine spe- 

 cimens of both sexes, from the most perfect of which we took the fol- 

 lowing description. We will add, that having had the good fortune to 

 observe a flock, consisting of nearly a hundred, within a few feet of 

 them, as they were busily engaged in picking the seeds of some garden 

 plants, we can with confidence assert that they all had the red patch on 

 the crown ; but there were very few which had the red rump and 

 breast ; the young males, it is probable, are not thus marked until the 

 spring ; and the females are destitute of that ornament altogether. _ 



The Lesser Red-poll is five inches and a quarter in length, and eight 

 inches and a half in breadth ; the bill is pale yellow, ridged above and 

 below with dark horn color, the upper mandible projecting somewhat 

 over the lower at the tip ; irides dark hazel ; the nostrils are covered 

 with recumbent, hair-like feathers of drab color ; a line of brown ex- 

 tends from the eyes, and encircles the base of the bill, forming in some 

 specimens a patch below the chin ; the crown is ornamented with a 

 pretty large spot of deep shining crimson ; the throat, breast and rump, 

 stained with the same, but of a more delicate red ; the belly is of a very 

 pale ash, or dull white ; the sides are streaked with dusky ; the whole up- 

 per parts are brown or dusky, the plumage edged with yellowish white and 

 pale ash, the latter most predominant near the rump ; wings and tail 

 dusky, the latter is forked, and consists of twelve feathers edged with 

 white ; the primaries are very slightly tipped and edged with white ; the 

 secondaries more so ; the greater and lesser coverts are also tipped with 



