% 
1889. ] CHAMBERLAIN, Birds of Southern Greenland. 295 
speckled with the darker tint. These with the adult female moulted in July. 
The fifth young bird was supposed to be a male of the previous year’s hatch 
ing, differing from the others by being larger and lighter in color. It also 
had a distinct yellow band on the wings, and the forehead was faintly 
tinged with yellow; the throat was black. On August 13 this bird had 
not yet moulted, or else had finished before its capture. In their new 
dress three of the young wore metallic yellow on the crown, while the crown 
of the fourth was of a dark reddish tint. All the four became more like 
the fifth—the immature bird,—their crowns stronger colored, but the black 
on the throat less decided. The adult female had not at that date finished 
moulting. She lost the red crown patch—excepting a very small portion, 
and this was being replaced by yellow, similar to the young. The adult 
male was moulting and had lost some of his yellow crown. In this bird— 
the adult male—the upper mandible projects between one and two milli- 
meters, and ends with a hook. The upper mandible is blackish and the 
under mandible yellow. 
During the breeding season these birds are gregarious, and when one 
utters a note of warning oralarm a dozen or more of its fellows immediately 
surround it and join in the alarm. 
They are very noisy and restless, constantly on the alert, and continually 
piping or singing, caring little for an intruder, and boldly approaching 
within a few feet of him. Mr. Hagerup writes that he does not agree with 
Holboll’s opinion that these birds are very wild during the breeding season; 
they are merely restless, as they are at all times. Mr. Hagerup also dif- 
fers from Holbdll’s statement that the males lose the red from the breast 
and back during the summer, and reports having seen numerous red- 
breasted birds through the whole summer. 
One that was shot on July 2 was highly colored with red. This speci- 
men was not as large as the imprisoned male. About fifteen per cent of 
the adult (red crowned) birds have red on the breast and rump during the 
summer months. This red color, Mr. Hagerup considers, may possibly 
not appear before the bird is several years of age, or may, perhaps, indicate 
a different race. These questions he will endeavorto determine by further 
investigations. 
The song of the Redpoll, which is uttered both when on the wing and 
while perching, isa rather mediocre performance, and becomes very monot™ 
onous. 
Its food in summer consists partly of the fruitand leaf buds of the wil- 
low, and partly of insects. The cesophagus of a male shot on July 2 was 
filled to the throat with small flies. 
These birds are not found at a greater height above sea level than 300 
to 400 feet. 
Plectrophenax nivalis. SNOWFLAKE.—Holbdll states that this species 
remains in Greenland during the winter, though restricted chiefly in that 
season to the highlands, seldom visiting the lowlands. Itdoes not occur in 
the vicinity of Ivigtut in winter, but during the summer months is quite 
numerous and breeds, 
