540 LINCOLN'S FINCH. 



find, it chants for hours ; or, diving into the thickets, it hops from branch 

 to branch, until it reaches the ground, in search of those insects and ber- 

 ries from which it derives its support. It moves swiftly off when it dis- 

 covers an enemy ; and, if forced to take wing, flies low and rapidly to 

 some considerable distance, jerking its tail as it proceeds, and throwing 

 itself at the foot of the thickest bush it meets. I found it mostly near 

 streams, and always in the small valleys, guarded from the cold winds 

 so prevalent in the country, and which now and then nip the vegetation, 

 and destroy many of the more delicate birds. 



Like every other species of the genus, Lincoln's Finch is petulant and 

 pugnacious. Two males often chase each other, vmtil the weaker is forced 

 to abandon the valley, and seek refuge in another. On this account I 

 seldom saw more than two or three pairs in a tract seven or eight miles 

 in extent. 



On the 4th of July, the young were out of the nest, following their 

 parents ; and as, from that time, the old birds ceased to sing, I concluded 

 that they raise only one brood each year. Before we left Labrador, these 

 Finches had all disappeared. In what parts this species passes the winter 

 is unknown to me ; nay, I never met with it in any of the Southern 

 States, although I saw several specimens in the collection of the learned 

 William Cooi'ER, Esq. of New York, that had been procured in the 

 vicinity of that city. 



The plants represented along with a pair of these birds, grew in the 

 little valley in which the first individual seen by us was procured. They 

 were taken up with a spade from the midst of a rich broad bed of mosses, 

 and may serve to convey an idea of the nature of the vegetation of those 

 places. 



Lincoln's Finch, Frtkgilla Lincolnii. 



Adult Male. Plate CXCIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill short, conical, acute ; upper mandible almost straight in its dorsal 

 outline, rounded on the sides ; lower mandible slightly convex beneath, 

 the sides rounded ; edges of both sharp and inflected ; gap-line deflected 

 at the base. Nostrils basal, roundish, partially concealed by the feathers. 

 Head rather large, neck short, body rather full. Feet of moderate 

 length, slender ; tarsus covered anteriorly with a few longish scutella ; 



