. 



SPECIES 15. PR ING ILL A UNARM. 



LESSER RED-POLL. 



[Plate XXX. Fig. 4.] 



LATH, n, 505. Arct. Zool. 379. Le Sizeren, BUFF, iv, 216. 

 PEALE'S Museum, No. 6579. 



THIS bird corresponds so exactly in size, figure and colour of 

 plumage with that of Europe, of the same name, as to place 

 their identity beyond a doubt. They inhabit during summer 

 the most northern parts of Canada and still more remote north- 

 ern countries, from whence they migrate at the commencement 

 of winter. They appear in the Gennesee country -with the first 

 deep snow, and on that account are usually called by the title 

 of Snow-birds. As the female is destitute of the crimson on 

 the breast and forehead, and the young birds do not receive 

 that ornament till the succeeding spring, such a small pro- 

 portion of the individuals that form these flocks are marked 

 with red, as to induce a general belief among the inhabitants of 

 those parts that they are two different kinds associated together. 

 Flocks of these birds have been occasionally seen in severe 

 winters in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. They seem par- 

 ticularly fond of the seeds of the common alder, and hang head 

 downwards while feeding, in the manner of the Yellow-bird. 

 They seem extremely unsuspicious at such times, and will al- 

 low a very near approach without betraying any symptoms of 

 alarm. 



The specimen represented in the plate was shot, with sever- 

 ral others of both sexes, in Seneca county, between the Seneca 

 and Cayuga lakes. Some individuals were occasionally heard to 

 chant a few interrupted notes, but no satisfactory account can 

 be given of their powers of song. 



