498 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The liabits and appear.ince of tlie liirds obscrvtHJ in Europe ai>])ear identi- 

 cal with those of our own. Mr. Varrell states that of all hirds these are tlie 

 most easily tamed, and can be readily made to breed in confinement. In 

 Scotland and in parts of Kngland it is resident throui^diout the year, in the 

 sununer retirinj^' to the bases of the mountains, and there breeding in the un- 

 derwood tliat skirts the banks of the mountain streams. It nests in bushes 

 or low trees, such as the alder and the willow. These are constructed of 

 mosses and tlie stems of dry grasses, intermingled witli down from the catkins 

 of the willow, and lined with the same, making tliem soft and warm. The 

 young are j>roduced late in the season, and are seldom able to Hy before the 

 first of July. The parent birtls are devoted in their attachment. Pennant 

 relates that in one instance where this bird was sitting on four eggs, she was 

 so tenacious of her nest as to suffer him to take her ott* with his hand, and 

 after having been released she still refused to leave it. In the winter they 

 descend to the lower grounds, and there feed on the buds of the birch and 

 abler, to reach which they are obliged, like the Titmice, to hang from the 

 euvls of the l)ranches, with their backs downward. So intent are they ou 

 their work that thev are easily taken alive by means of a long stick smeared 

 with birdlime. Mr. Selby states that its notes during the breeding-season, 

 though not delivered in a continuous song, are sweet and pleasing. Captain 

 Scoresby relates that in his ai>})roacli to Si)itzbergen several of these birds 

 alighted on his ship. They were so wearied with their long journey as to be 

 easily caught by the hand. The distance of the nearest point of Norway 

 renders it diilicult to imagine how so delicate a bird can perform this journey, 

 or why it should seek such a cold and barren country. European eggs are 

 five in number, of a pale bluish-green, spotted with omnge-brown, princi- 

 pally aV)out the larger end. They measure .(SZ) by .50 of an inch. 



American eggs of this species average .65 by .53 of an inch. Their 

 color is a light bluish-white, which varies considerably in the depth of its 

 siiading, and this tinge is exceedingly fugitiye, it* being diilicult t^3 preserve 

 it even in a cabinet. The eggs are generally and finely dotted with a rusty- 

 Mrown, and are of a rather rounded oval shape. 



iEgiothus canesccns, Cabams. 



KEALY BED-POLL. 



Linaria cancscois, Gori.D, *' Birds Eurojte, pi. oxciii." Linota canesccns, Boxap. List, 1838. 

 Aciiidhis aincacciis. Box. ("ons|M'<-tus, 1850, 541. — Box. & Schlegkl, Mon. Loxiens, 

 1850, 47, tul). li. — Ko.ss, Ell. Pliil. Jour. 1861, 1G3. ^tjiothm caneiiccns, Cabaxi-s 

 Mu.s. Hcin. 1851, UJl. — Bauii), Birds N. Am. 18,58, 429. —Cocks, P. A. N. S. 1861, 

 388. — Sami'KLs, 295. ''Frinnilbi horrafi.s, Temmixck, 1835. Not of Vicillot." 

 Bonapartt'. / Fritujiffo horadis, Ari>. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 87, pi. ceee. ? Lhwria 

 h<tn«lis, Ari>. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 12<», j»l. tlxxviii. ^^ Linarid homrmnvni, HnLnui.L, 

 Kroycr Nat. Tidskr. 1843." .E'jiothitH ,:iihj)es, CoiKs>, Pr. A. N. Sc. Nov. 1861, 385. 

 — Elliot, Iliust. N. Am. Bird.s, I, pi. i.x. 



