LAND BIRDS. 475 
is November 9, 1889, 
on which date one 
was killed on the 
Spectacle Reef Light- 
house in northern 
Lake Huron. In 
northern Wisconsin it 
has been observed as 
early as October 28. 
It does not visit the 
south and south- 
eastern counties of 
Michigan so often as 
the northern parts of 
the state, probably 
because it finds 
abundance of food 
and suitable condi- 
tions in the north. 
It feeds to a large 
extent on the seeds of the birches and alders, but also attacks the cones 
of the tamarack and arbor-vitie, and probably to some extent those of 
other pines. It also feeds freely on grass-seeds and weed-seeds, but takes 
to the bare ground with some reluctance. Not infrequently it is found 
in company with crossbills and has been known to follow the latter and 
extract seeds from the cones torn open by the stronger bird. 
Apparently it has little or no song even at the nesting season, though 
one observer speaks of a faint warble and another of a “twittering.” 
The nest, found only in arctic and subarctic regions, is built of various 
grasses, plant fibres and moss, lined with feathers and hair, and placed 
in low bushes, alders, willows, ete., usually but a foot or two above the 
ground. The eggs are three to five, bluish white finely spotted with brown, 
and average about .69 by .48 inches (Ridgw.). 
Fig. 112. tedpoll. 
From Nuttall’s Ornithology. Little, Brown & Co. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
“Adult: Top of head bright red (usually crimson), and a dusky spot covering chin 
and upper part of throat; wing exceeding tail by more than length of tarsus; rump distinctly 
streaked; sides distinctly, often broadly and heavily, streaked with dusky; under tail- 
coverts with very distinct dusky mesial streaks; inner webs of tail-feathers very slightly, 
if at all, edged with white; plumage in general darker, with darker markings prevailing 
on upper parts, the lower parts never entirely white; adult males with chest and sides of 
breast deep madder-pink; bill in winter yellow, tipped with black. Females lack the red 
of breast and sides but have the red cap. Young of both sexes are without red on crown 
or elsewhere; whole head streaked with dusky and grayish or brownish white, the latter 
color prevailing on under portions; otherwise much as in adult female, but plumage of 
much softer,"more ‘woolly’ texture, and markings less sharply defined” (Ridgway). _ 
“Length 4.50 to 5 inches, with proportionally longer and more acute bill. Male: W ing 
2.80 to 3.05 inches; tail 2.20 to 2.50; exposed culmen .32 to .38; depth of bill at base .22 
to .27; tarsus .55 to .60. Female: Wing 2.75 to 2.90; tail 2.20 to 2.40; exposed culmen 
30 to .37; depth of bill at base .20 to .25; tarsus .55 to .60”’ (Ridgway). 
