Redpoll. Redpoll Linnet 



The redpolls are occasionally the most abundant of 

 our winter birds, but, on the other hand, several successive 

 winters often pass without their occurrence in Massachusetts. 

 .... They wander continually during their visits, 

 and hence are very irregular in appearance at different 

 localities. I have never observed them to feed from the 

 evergreens, but they have a marked fondness for the seeds 

 of white birches and alders. 



MINOT. Land and Game Birds. 20 



Famine, in all probability, or the scarcity of food, urges 

 them to advance toward the south. It is certain that 

 they do not forsake their natal regions to seek shelter 

 from the cold. 



Nuttall's Ornithology. 26 



In the birches, on the grasses 

 Stiffly rising through the snow crust, 

 On the slope of yonder sand-bank 

 Where the snow has slipped and wasted, 

 Rest a flock of trustful strangers, 

 Lisping words of gentle greeting, 

 Rest and find the sun's rays warming, 

 Rest and find their food abundant, 

 Resting, sing of weary journeys 

 From a Northland cold and distant. 



Rose-touched are their brows, with tints like 

 Lights upon a winter's snow-field, 



115 



