FINCHES 389 



County Records. — Androscoggin; rare winter visitor, (Call). Aroostook; 

 resident, breeds in a few localities in the wooded regions throughout the 

 county, (Knight). Cumberland ; common migrant, one nest taken, (Mead). 

 Franklin; common resident, (Swain). Hancock; common locally from fall 

 to spring, rare summer resident, (Knight). Kennebec; very rare, (Dill). 

 Knox; winter visitant, (Rackliff). Oxford; breeds, (Nash). Penobscot; 

 common locally from fall to spring, local summer resident, (Knight). Piscat- 

 aquis ; rare summer resident, (Whitman) ; common winter resident, (Homer). 

 Somerset; very irregular, sometimes summer resident, (Morrell); breeds 

 quite commonly locally in northern county, (Knight). Waldo ; rather com- 

 mon fall to spring, rare summer resident, (Knight). Washington; winter 

 visitant, sometimes summer resident, (Boardman). 



In southern Maine the species is generally observed from 

 October to about March, occurring in sporadic abundance, 

 while in northern and eastern Maine the species may be ob- 

 served locally almost any month in the year. It is of a restless, - 

 roving disposition, breeding in one locality one year to not 

 perhaps be seen there again during the next season, roving 

 here and there in small flocks of ten or a dozen, sometimes 

 even hundreds together, seldom remaining long anywhere save 

 in the nesting season. 



The call notes are very similar to those of the American 

 Goldfinch and though generally able to distinguish them I 

 cannot record on paper the exact difference in their notes 

 uttered when flying or feeding, save that the calls seem rather 

 harsher and louder. They occasionally utter a peculiar inter- 

 rogatory "wee.?" which is different from any Goldfinch call I 

 have ever noted. The song of the male I have never heard 

 but it is evident that such exists. 



The late Clarence H. Morrell writes regarding the habits of 

 this species (Auk 16, p. 252). "When I returned to River 

 Herbert in March I found them by far the most abundant 

 bird. There were thousands scattered throughout the spruces 

 all along the shore, not in large flocks, but quite evenly dis- 

 tributed over many square miles of woodland. They were in 

 full song and from sunrise to sunset their lisping notes were 

 constantly heard. On the sixteenth of March while at Gristle's 



