LINCOLN'S PINEWOOD-PINCH. 117 



from which it derives its support. It moves swiftly off when it discovers an 

 enemy; and, if forced to take wing, flies low and rapidly to some consider- 

 able 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, until 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 

 Cooper, 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. 



New York and Labrador. Rather rare. Migratory. 



Lincoln's Finch, Fringilla Lincolnii, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 539. 



Adult Male. 



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

 line, 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; toes free, scutellate 

 above, the lateral ones nearly equal; hind-toe not much stouter; claws 

 slender, compressed, slightly arched, acute. 



Plumage soft, blended, the feathers somewhat distinct on the back, slightly 

 glossed. Wings shortish, curved, second and third quills longest, and equal, 

 first almost as long as fifth, secondaries long and rounded. Tail rather long, 

 graduated and emarginate, of twelve straight, narrow, rather acute feathers. 



Vol. III. 20 



