158 THE WHITE-CROWNED FINCH. 



in the autumn of 1817. I then thought it the handsomest bird of its kind, 

 and my opinion still is that none other known to me as a visiter or inhabitant 

 of the United States, exceeds it in beauty. I procured five individuals, three 

 of which were in full plumage and proved to be males. The sex of the other 

 two could not be ascertained; but I have since become convinced that these 

 birds lose the white stripes on the head in the winter season, when they 

 might be supposed to be of a different species. During spring and summer 

 the male and the female are of equal beauty, the former being only a little 

 larger than the latter. The young which I procured in Labrador, shewed 

 the white stripes on the head as they were fully fledged, and I think they 

 retain those marks in autumn longer than the old birds, of which the feathei'S 

 have become much worn at that season. In the winter of 1833, 1 procured 

 at Charleston in South Carolina, one in its brown livery. 



One day, while near American Harbour, in Labrador, I observed a pair of 

 these birds frequently resorting to a small hammock of firs, where I con- 

 cluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I intimated my 

 suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept through the tangled 

 branches, and examined the place, but without success. Determined, how- 

 ever, to obtain our object, we returned with hatchets, cut down every tree to 

 its roots, removed each from the spot, pulled up all the mosses between them, 

 and completely cleared the place; yet no nest did we find. Our disappoint- 

 ment was the greater that we saw the male bird frequently flying about with 

 food in its bill, no doubt intended for rts mate. In a short while, the pair 

 came near us, and both were shot. In the female we found an egg, which 

 was pure white, but with the shell yet soft and thin. On the 6th of July, 

 while my son was creeping among some low bushes, to get a shot at some 

 Red-throated Divers, he accidentally started a female from her nest. It made 

 much complaint. The nest was placed in the moss, near the foot of a low 

 fir, and was formed externally of beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches 

 like the coarse hair of some quadruped, internally of very fine dry grass, 

 arranged with great neatness, to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with a 

 full lining of delicate fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. It was 5 

 inches in diameter externally, 2 in depth, 2\ in diameter within, although 

 rather oblong, and 1|- deep. In one nest we found a single feather of the 

 Willow Grouse. The eggs, five in number, average ^ of an inch in length, 

 are proportionally broad, of a light sea-green colour, mottled toward the 

 larger end with brownish spots and blotches, a few spots of a lighter tint 

 being dispersed over the whole. This description differs greatly from that 

 of the nest and eggs of this species given by others, who, I apprehend, have 

 mistaken for them those of the Fox-tailed Sparrow, or the Jlnthus Spinoletta. 

 We found many nests, which were all placed on the ground, or among the 



