( 533) 
LESSER REDPOLL. 
FRINGILLA Li1NARIA, Linn. 
PLATE CCCLXXV. Mate anv FEemate. 
WueEn I was in Labrador, my young companions and my son one 
day (the 27th of July 1833) procured eight individuals of this species, of 
different sexes and ages. Next morning I went to the place where 
they had been shot, and found a good number remaining. The first 
observation I made had reference to their notes, which, instead of re- 
sembling those of the Goldfinch, as alleged by an American writer, are 
very similar to those of the Siskin, and are frequently uttered both 
when the birds are alighted and while they are on wing. They were 
in small parties of seven or eight, apparently formed by the members 
of the same family, and although several of these groups were around 
me, they did not intermingle until fired at, when they all simulta- 
neously rose on wing, mixed together, and after performing several 
short evolutions returned to the same bushes, separated into families, and 
resumed their occupations. When alighted they were quite unsuspect- 
ing, and so heedless as to allow a close approach, scarcely regarding 
my presence, but clinging to the branches, dexterously picking out the 
seeds of the alder-cones, and occasionally coming to the ground after 
some which had dropped. 
Few birds exhibit a more atfectionate disposition than the Little 
Redpoll, and it was pleasing to see several on a twig feeding each other 
by passing a seed from bill to bill, one individual sometimes receiving 
food from his two neighbours at the same time. Occasionally, how- 
ever, they shewed considerable pugnacity, and one would drive off its 
companion, inflicting some smart blows upon it with its bill, and ut- 
tering a low querulous chatter. 
In other portions of the same country, I saw flocks composed of 
twenty or more individuals flying loosely at a moderate height, in the 
undulatory manner of the American Goldfinch and Siskin, without, 
however, making the deep sweeps of the former ; suddenly alighting, 
and at once beginning to search with great expertness between the 
