SONG-BIRDS. Redpoll 



Season : A winter visitor from the north. 



Breeds : In boreal regions. 



Range : Northern portions of Northern Hemisphere ; south, irregu- 

 larly, in winter ; in North America, to the middle United 

 States (Washington, B.C., Kansas, southeastern Oregon). 



The Redpoll, Redpoll Linnet, or Little Snowbird, as it is 

 locally called, comes out of the north on the snow clouds, 

 with the Buntings and Crossbills, and returns to its breed- 

 ing-grounds usually before its spring song is heard. It is 

 most frequently to be seen in weedy pastures, where it 

 feeds upon the seeds of small herbs, and after heavy snows 

 have covered the lowlands it retreats to the many-seeded 

 composite that swarm along the sides of grass-grown roads, 

 and in an extremity, feeds upon tree buds, especially those 

 of the black birch. It never becomes as friendly as its 

 cousin, the American Goldfinch, but you can easily identify 

 it and watch its movements when it is feeding upon some 

 conspicuous spray that protrudes from the fresh snow. At 

 such times a flock of Redpolls, with their little ruddy 

 crowns, are the prettiest things imaginable. Thoreau's 

 soliloquy upon these winter birds, as he stood looking over 

 the late November landscape, is too beautiful to quote merely 

 in part. He says : " Standing there, though in this bare 

 November landscape, I am reminded of the incredible phe- 

 nomenon of small birds in winter, that erelong, amid the 

 cold, powdery snow, as it were a fruit of the season, will 

 come twittering a flock of delicate, crimson-tinged birds, 

 Lesser Redpolls, to sport and feed on the seeds and buds 

 just ripe for them on the sunny side of a wood, shaking 

 down the powdery snow there in their cheerful feeding, as 

 if it were high midsummer to them. . . . They greet the 

 hunter and the chopper in their furs. Their Maker gave 

 them the last touch, and launched them forth the day of 

 the Great Snow. He made this bitter, imprisoning cold, 

 before which man quails, but He made at the same time 

 these warm and glowing creatures to twitter and be at 

 home in it. He said not only let there be Linnets in win- 

 ter, but Linnets of rich plumage and pleasing twitter, 



139 



