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. JEGIOTHUS 



(A) LINARIUS. "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 5| 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. exilipes, 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."] 



(6). 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. 



