Redpoll Linnets 



By LOTTIE ALVORD LACEY, Southport, Conn, 

 Illustrated by the author 



IT has been our custom for years to feed the winter birds. Last winter 

 (1906-7) after the first heavy snowstorm a lunch-table was provided for 

 them. It consisted of a board eight feet long and eighteen inches wide, 

 which was placed a rod or two from the house and spread with millet several 

 times a day. This was done through February and March and we were repaid 

 a hundred fold. 



At first the table was patronized almost exclusively by English Sparrows 

 and Tree Sparrows, but others kept arriving daily until our guests numbered 

 at least twenty-five English Sparrows, twelve or fifteen Tree Sparrows, three 

 Song Sparrows and six Juncos. These came regularly, and one day early in March, 

 eight aristocratic little strangers' appeared. They resembled Chipping Sparrows, 

 but were of an ashier hue with, upon the top of the head, a patch of crimson 

 glistening like satin in the sunlight. They were immediately looked up and 

 identified as Redpoll Linnets, and it was about these birds that all interest cen- 

 tered from this time on. They made themselves at home from the first. 



As soon as the table was spread each day the numerous guests, who had 

 been intently watching and eagerly chirping in the surrounding trees and shrub- 

 bery, began to take their places. It was generally an English Sparrow that 

 came first; then, 'the ice being broken', there was a general advance from all 

 sides. 



It was interesting to watch the different modes of approach. The English 

 Sparrows hopped from limb to limb, coming nearer by degrees; the Tree Sparrows 

 flew directly to the board; the Song Sparrows always alighted a rod or so away 

 and crept along the ground to the table. But the Linnets were the most grace- 

 ful; they dropped from their perch above and fluttered down in wavering circles 

 precisely like falling leaves. They moved about the lunch-table with a quiet 

 air of superiority, and the other birds instinctively gave place to them, with the 

 exception of the Tree Sparrows, who were very impudent and belligerent 

 at every meal. As the table filled there was more or less scurrying for choice 

 positions, but the English Sparrows, to our surprise, were models of good breed- 

 ing. If a Linnet approached a portion of millet appropriated by one of them 

 the English Sparrow very rarely made any objection to sharing, and quite fre- 

 quently moved away immediately, seeming to say, "Pardon me, I did not know 

 that this was your place at table." 



Outside one of the windows, close to the sill and on a level with it, there 

 was a flower-box *three feet long and one and one-half feet wide. In this, also, 

 millet was placed each day, and the Linnets found it the same afternoon that 

 they discovered the lunch-table. We heard a great chattering at the window 

 and going to it found five Redpolls conversing vigorously over their feast. As 



do) 



