456 PINE FINCH. 



nutes would leave us, and direct their course toward the nearest shores, 

 perhaps following in the wake of other flocks. 



At the Harbour of Bras d'Or, on the coast of Labrador, in the end of 

 July, we met with a great number of these birds. They were then ac- 

 companied by their young, and moved in flocks composed of a single 

 family, or at most of two. They haunted low thickets of willows and 

 elders in the vicinity of water, and were extremely fearless and gentle, 

 allowing the members of my party to approach them very near, so that 

 we procured as many of them as we desired. No difference was obser- 

 vable either in the males or the females as to plumage, compared with 

 that which they have in the winter, only that the yellow of the wings 

 was brighter and richer than it is at that season. The young were al- 

 ready fully fledged, had the whole head of a clean plain grey tint, and 

 although exhibiting the different markings elsewhere seen on the old 

 birds, they had those markings depicted in feeble tints. Not a nest could 

 we find, although I have no doubt that the birds which we saw had been 

 reared in the immediate neighbourhood. 



In the State of Maine they are always abundant during winter. My 

 young friend Thomas Lincoln, informed me that at that season, they flock 

 in company with Crossbills, the Pine Grosbeak, the White-winged Cross- 

 bill, and other species, are easily caught, and require no particular care 

 in keeping. 



This species sings while on the wing, as the Goldfinch is wont to 

 do. Its notes are sweet, varied, clear and mellow, and although some- 

 what resembling those of the bird just mentioned, are yet perfectly dis- 

 tinct from them. Its flight, however, is almost the same as that of the 

 Goldfinch. Like that bird, it glides through the air in graceful deep curves, 

 emitting its common call-note at every effort which it makes to propel 

 itself. 



Those which I saw while in South Carolina, in company with my 

 esteemed friend John Bachman, fed entirely on the seeds of the Sweet 

 Gum, each bird hanging to a bur for a while, and passing from one to 

 another with great celerity. They are fond of open grounds, and aKght 

 on detached trees, when these are high, but at most times they prefer 

 thickets of bushes. 



The specimens represented in the plate, were procured near the re- 

 sidence of Sir AKCHiJtALD Campbell, Bart, in New Brunswick, of 



