THE REDPOLL 



(A can this linaria. ) 



In the birches, on the grasses 

 Stiffly rising through the snow crust, 

 On the slope of j-onder sand-bank 

 Where the snow has slipped and wasted, 

 Rest a flock of trustful strangers, 

 Lisping words of gentle greeting. 

 Rest and find the sun's rays warming. 

 Rest and find their food abundant, 

 Resting, sing of weary journeys 

 From a Northland cold and distant. 



— Frank Bolles, "The Redpoll Linnet." 



It is extremely doubtful if the beauti- 

 ful little Redpoll would ever be more 

 than a casual visitor in the United States. 

 were it not for the lack of food during 

 the severe winter seasons in the far 

 North. It delights in the cool air of 

 high latitudes and it has been known to 

 remain at high attitudes on mountain 

 sides when the thermometer registered 

 a temperature near thirty desrrees below 

 zero. During the winter the Redpolls are 

 common in Colorado from the plains to 

 a height of ten thousand feet. In Alaska, 

 Mr. Nelson says that thev leave the 

 coast late in the fall and "flock to the 

 interior, where they brave the severest 

 weather." 



This beautiful bird with its "bright 

 rosy hues and fluffy plumage ;" its 

 cheerful and confiding nature, and its 

 activity and curiosity, becomes an inter- 

 esting study, when, after the young . 

 have passed from its care, it approaches 

 gardens and houses, seeking food. It 

 carefully examines everything, ".scarcely 

 deigning to move aside as the people pass 

 back and forth.'" In some localities the 

 Redpoll seem to take possession of 

 every available spot. The roofs of build- 

 ing, the vines on porches, the rails and 

 posts of fences, and the trees and bushes 

 that shade the lawn, all seem available as 

 perches upon which they rest or launch 

 forth in quest of food or to chase their 

 fellows in happy play. The simplicity 



and happy disposition of the Redpoll is 

 almost childlike. Mr. Burroughs ob- 

 served this species in company with the 

 Canada sparrows, about a bam yard 

 where it fed through the winter on the 

 scattered hayseed. He says: "I felt 

 grateful to them for their company. 

 They gave a sort of ornithological air 

 to every errand I had to the barn." 



Mr. Selby gives the following account 

 of the habits of the Redpoll, as he ob- 

 served them in England. "It is only 

 known in the southern parts of Britain 

 as a winter visitant ; and -it is at that 

 time gregarious and frequently taken, in 

 company with other species, by bird- 

 catchers, by whom it is called the Stone 

 Redpoll. In the northern counties of 

 England and in Scotland and its isles, it 

 is resident throughout the year. It re- 

 tires during the summer to the under- 

 wood that covers the bases of many of 

 our mountains and hills and that often 

 fringes the banks of their precipitous 

 streams ; in which sequested situations it 

 breeds. The nest is built in a bush or 

 low tree, of moss and the stalks of dry 

 grass intermixed with down from the 

 catkin of the willow, which also forms 

 the lining and renders it a particularly 

 soft and warm receptacle for the eggs 

 and young." The materials used in the 

 construction of the nests vary with the 

 locality selected and the kind of ma- 

 terials usuallv found in the immediate 



