REDPOLL 



Cheep, cheep, cheep. 



Redpoll The fearless and friendly Redpoll is a 



Acanthis lin a ri aiiiile cr i mson -tmged winter bird often 

 October aoth associated in groups with the Goldfinch 

 to April yth during the winter months. Some individ- 

 uals are apparently without the red, others are but slightly 

 tinged with it, and still others possess quite a bright color. 

 It is a distinctly boreal species, an irregular winter visitant 

 of New York and New England, and has been abundant in 

 1876, 78, '82, '86, '89, '99, 1906, '08, '10, '14, '17 and '19. 

 After the first week in April the bird is very seldom if ever 

 seen. In the valley of the Pemigewasset River in the White 

 Mountains, it is far from uncommon. The general color- 

 ing is that of a sparrow; streaky, ocherous brown above, 

 crown often a bright light crimson, forehead and upper 

 throat dusky sepia, the lower throat, breast, and rump 

 dull pale crimson pink, under parts dull gray white, and 

 the wings with whitish bars and eqlges, the bill is small, 

 sharp, and rather straight with no perceptible arch. Fe- 

 male with little or no pink on the breast and rump. Nest, 

 of dried grass and moss lined with the down of plants; it is 

 located in low bushes or tussocks of grass. Egg, bluish or 

 greenish white sprinkled with burnt sienna brown. The 

 species breeds from Alaska to northern Ungava and south- 

 ward to Alberta and the islands of the Gulf of the St. 

 Lawrence ; in winter it migrates irregularly as far south as 

 Illinois and Virginia. 



To hear the song of the Redpoll one must journey to the 

 far North; rarely the little bird pipes up before he leaves 

 our northern States in early spring, when he does one will 

 hear an ebullient, rippling series of notes, eiosely resem- 

 bling the rapid chirps of the Canary (never the trills), rather 

 thin and wiry in tone with the metallic, ringing quality of 

 cut-glass. Here is a meagre record but it is the only one I 

 have been able to secure. 



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