The Common Redpoll 



Occurrence in California. — Known only from report of J. M. Willard of forty 

 specimens taken between Nov. 30 and Dec. 23, 1899, near Eagle Lake in Lassen County. 



Authorities. — Willard, Condor, vol. iv., 1902, pp. 45-46 (only Calif, record); 

 Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 109. 



THE PLATEAU 

 region of northeastern 

 California is especially 

 favored in the matter of 

 northern visitors; and it 

 is reasonable to suppose 

 that flocks of these 

 sturdy little Eskimos, 

 such as sweep down an- 

 nually through eastern 

 Washington and Oregon, 

 not infrequently reach 

 our own borders. There 

 is, however, only one re- 

 corded 1 instance, that by 

 Mr. J. M. Willard, of 

 Redpolls encountered 

 from Nov. 30 to Dec. 23, 

 1899, near Eagle Lake, 

 in Lassen County. This 

 observer says: "At first 

 I found only two large 

 flocks, but later numer- 

 ous smaller ones greatly 

 increased their number. 

 I ran into the first of 

 these flocks, well in a 

 forest, a mile or so from 

 a valley. The birds were 

 circling about over the 

 tree-tops, twittering 

 noisily, much after the 

 manner of Spinus pinns 

 [the Siskin], and now and then they would settle into the upper branches 

 of some pine, to be off again almost before the stragglers had reached it. 

 Later the flock settled on the birches and bushes along a small stream, 

 alighting all around me. Late the same afternoon 



I found another flock out in the sage-brush three-quarters of a mile from 



,/lott>o)iS. 



REDPOLLS IN WINTER 



1 Condor, Vol. IV., pp. 45-46 



179 



