RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 583 



Yellow Bird (Astragalinus tristis), breed very late in the 

 season, they may have retired in July farther north for this 

 purpose, as I did not meet with them later in the season. 

 This is very probably the fact, since Mr. William Brewster 

 found this species breeding in August this year at Gorham, 

 New Hampshire. 



RED-POLL FINCH. ^Egiothus linaria Cab. During the 

 past five years this little northern visitor has been several 

 times very numerous in Massachusetts. It was especially so 

 during the winters of 1866-'67, 1867-'6S, and quite so in 

 1868-'69. 



A series of skins in the collection of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, collected in this state by Mr. C. J. May- 

 nard, represent four of the so-called species of this group 

 recently recognized, the common ^E. linaria, the sup- 

 posed larger Mealy Redpoll, ^E. canescens Aud.,=^E r . efyi- K_ 

 lipes Coues, the ^32. rostratus, and the ^E. fuscescens, 

 described as a new species by Dr. Coues.* From a careful 

 examination of many specimens, from the far north, as well 

 as from Massachusetts, I cannot consider these forms as dis- 

 tinct species, since the differences on which they are based 

 are very inconstant, and connected by endless intermediate 

 stages. The extreme forms to which these several specific 

 designations have been applied are quite different from each 

 other, and if the differences were constant might well be 

 regarded as distinct species. But, as already stated, the dif- 

 erences are not constant, and it is almost impossible to draw 

 a separating line between these several so-called species. f 



RED CROSSBILL. Curvirostra Americana Wilson. This 

 bird, as is well known, is very irregular in its visits to this 

 state, not only in respect to numbers but in regard to the 

 season of its appearance. It is generally most numerous in 

 winter, but is sometimes more or less com'mon throughout 



* See his " Monograph of the Genus JZgiothus," Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., Nov., 1865. 

 t On this point see farther my "Notes on the Birds of Iowa, Illinois, etc.," in the Me- 

 moirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. 5, pt. iv, p. 515 (foot note). 



