Birds of Indiana. 923 



Mr. Chas. Dury took a single specimen in the vicinity of Cincinnati 

 in January, 1869. The first record for Indiana is a specimen taken by 

 Prof. B. W. Evermann, at Camden, November 5, 1878. From south- 

 ern Indiana there are but few notes. Dr. C. E. Case noted it in flocks 

 in Franklin County, February 10, 1881. Prof. Evermann identified a 

 single bird at Bloomington in December, 1882. Mr. E. L. Guthrie 

 obtained specimens in Decatur County the winter of 1883. Mr. Chan- 

 cey Juday obtained specimens from a flock of twenty at Bloomington, 

 April 12, 1895. They have also been reported as follows in winter: 

 That of 1889-90, they were distributed generally over the northern 

 part of the State in some numbers, having been«reported from Benton, 

 Wabash, Allen and Dekalb; 1892-3, there were many about Elkhart; 

 1895-6, they were tolerably common in Cook County, 111., and Lake 

 Count}^, Ind.; 1896-7, they seem to have been generally distributed 

 northward, having been reported as common in the vicinity of Chi- 

 cago; noted at different times in Lake County and common in March 

 at Sandusky, 0. There is a specimen in the State Museum at Indian- 

 apolis, from Boone Countj^, Ind. The earliest date of arrival in fall 

 is October 24, 1896, when they appeared commonly at Chicago. They 

 remained in that vicinity in 1885 until April 26, 



While often found among the evergreens, they also frequent weed 

 patches, eating the seeds, after the manner of the American Gold- 

 finch. They are easily frightened from their feeding grounds, but 

 soon return, uttering a soft call, -as if to reassure each other. Mr. H. 

 Nehrling observed them in 1875-6 at Oak Park, 111. He says: "With- 

 out fear, they came under the kitchen windows, picking up millet, 

 canary seed and crumbs of bread. The weeds in the garden (a species 

 of Ambrosia), and the hemp stalks, were thoroughly searched for food. 

 Like Titmice, they climbed, head downward, along branches of shrubs 

 and weed stalks, always uttering a peculiar chett, or chett-cherrett" 

 (Birds N. A., X., p. 51). They are very tame and unsuspicious when 

 undisturbed, but when frightened become wild. Their flight is not 

 high, and the scattered flocks move along in undulating lines. The 

 late Dr. Kirtland, of Ohio, records a crippled Eedpoll which came into 

 his possession in the winter of 1868, that ate crumbs of bread and hay- 

 seed, and rapidly recovered. It learned to live exclusively upon the 

 parasitic insects of house plants, and did so until it escaped in the 

 spring. 



