44 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Our Winter Visitors. 



BY A. B. KLUGH. 



[Bead before the Michigan Ornithological 

 Club Meeting of Dec. 5, 1903. held at the 

 Detroit Museum of Art.] 



To one whose specialty is Fringillidse 

 the winter is far from an uninteresting 

 season, as it is then that we may look 

 for most of the rarest birds of this 

 family. The present winter has been 

 marked by the early appearance of, 

 and abundance of, certain species. 



The first to arrive were, as usual, the 

 Tree Sparrows. They appeared on 

 October 21, for a month were very 

 common, and since^ have been noted 

 in fair numbers. At first they were 

 to be found in the thickets, but the 

 supply of food there must have become 

 exhausted, as latterly they have fre- 

 quented the weedy fields, feeding on 

 the seeds of catnip, lamb's quarters 

 and ragweed and the fruits of ragweed 

 and blueweed. 



On October 28 the Redpolls arrived, 

 and have been common up to the 

 present (January 16). Several large 

 flocks, varying from fifty to one hun- 

 dred and fifty, have been noted, but 

 they have been seen mostly in groups 

 of from two to five flying overhead. As 

 far as my observations extend they 

 have partaken of the same fare as the 

 Tree Sparrows. I have noted mixed 

 flocks composed of Redpolls, Tree 

 Sparrows and Juncos, and in such 

 cases when feeding two or three Red- 

 polls would be perched on a weed-stem 

 picking off the seeds, while some more 

 Redpolls and some Tree Sparrows and 

 Juncos would pick up the seeds which 

 they shook off. The average length 

 for Acan thie linaria is given as 5.45 

 inches and the minimum as 5.5. Of 

 twenty-two specimens which I have 

 taken only one reaches the minimum 

 length, one is only 4.6 inches and the 

 average 5.08 inches. 



On November 5 came the Pine Gros- 

 beaks. I first saw them in a thicket 



along the river Speed, feeding on the 

 seeds of the nightshade (S. dulcamara) 

 and on the ground on smartweed (P. 

 hydropiper. While on the ground they 

 would hop rapidly after, catch and eat 

 insects. From the above date until 

 December 8 these birds were very com- 

 mon, fresh flocks constantly arriving 

 from the north. 



Their chief articles of diet were the 

 two seeds above mentioned, but I also 

 noted them breaking open the oval 

 galls on the willow (S. discolor) and 

 eating the larvas within and feeding on 

 the fruits of ragweed and blueweed and 

 the buds of the spruce. Of the weeds 

 on cultivated fields ragweed was their 

 favorite. They would perch on a stalk 

 of this plant, which would bend down 

 with their weight when they would 

 stand upon tha prostrate stem and pick 

 off the fruits. 



The proportion of males in the bright 

 carmine plumage has been about one 

 in twenty, while that of immature 

 males with head and rump yellowish, 

 flushed in a varying degree with car- 

 mine has been about three in twenty. 

 The proportion of old males is hard to 

 estimate. My largest specimen, an 

 old male, measures 9.2 inches, my 

 smallest, a very dull immature male, 

 eight inches, the average is 8.5 inches. 



Snowflakes appeared on November 

 22 and have been seen frequently, 

 sometimes in flocks of about two hun- 

 dred since. 



On December 26 I noted an American 

 Goshawk and on January 11 four 

 American Goldeneyes and four Ameri- 

 can Mergansers, two males and two 

 females of each species. 



What the remainder of the winter 

 brings forth in the way of bird records 

 I will communicate at a later date. 

 Guelph, Ontario. 



