328 BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



spring drives them back to their northern home. In the state 

 of Maine they abound in the cold season, and are sometimes, 

 though not regularly, seen here. Their flight resembles that 

 of the goldfinch, with rising and falling inflections, and their 

 note is said to be similar and equally sweet. Where they rear 

 their young has not yet been discovered. 



The LESSER REDPOLE, Fringilla linaria, is an occasional 

 visiter in winter. Flocks have been seen as far south as Phila- 

 delphia ; but they come at uncertain, and generally distant in- 

 tervals, and very little is known concerning either their habits 

 or their song. 



The FOX-COLORED SPARROW, Fringilla iliaca, is perhaps the 

 finest of this family of birds. It is large and handsome ; gen- 

 erally larger than NuttalPs measurement, which is but six 

 inches. When the evening sun falls on its cinnamon plumage, 

 its appearance is beautiful. It passes through Massachusetts 

 on its way to the south, soon after the fall of the leaf, and re- 

 turns early in the spring it is then seen in gardens, scratch- 

 ing the ground, in search of seeds and insects, making no sound 

 except a low call occasionally to its companions. It waits till 

 the weather grows mild enough for its journey, and as soon as 

 it determines to go, perches on the high branches of trees and 

 sings an air, easy, flowing, clear and incomparably sweet. 

 They rear their young in the British Provinces and other 

 northern regions. 



The GROUND ROBIN, Fringilla erythropthalma, is an ex- 

 ceedingly common bird, found on the borders of forests and 

 woodland roads, where it scratches among the dry leaves for 

 worms and insects, so entirely absorbed in its employment that 

 any one can approach within a few feet of it without its taking 

 any alarm. While thus engaged, it often utters the loud call 

 from which it is named the pee-winkj and sometimes the tow- 

 wee bunting. But at times, it sings with much more preten- 

 sion, and, perched on the high branch of an oak, warbles a loud, 



