LESSER REDPOLL. 



33 



eight and a half in extent ; crown and hind head, black ; 

 cheeks, pure white ; from each lower mandible runs a streak 

 of small black spots, those on the side, larger ; the rest of 

 the lower parts, white ; primaries, black, edged with yellow ; 

 rest of the wing, black, edged with ash ; the first and second 

 row of coverts, broadly tipt with white ; back, ash, tinged 

 with yellow ochre, and streaked laterally with black ; tail, 

 black, edged with ash, the three exterior feathers marked 

 on the inner webs with white ; bill, black above, whitish 

 below, furnished with bristles at the base ; iris, hazel ; legs 

 and feet, reddish yellow. 



The female differs very little in plumage from the male. 



LESSER EEDPOLL. {Fringilla linaria) 



PLATE XXX.— Fig. 4. 



Lath. ii. 305.— Arct. Zool. 379.— Le Sizeren, Buff. iv. 216. PL enl. 151, 2.— 

 Peale's Museum, No. 6579. 



LINARIA MINOR. — "Willoughby. 

 Fringilla linaria, Bonap. Synop. p. 112. 



This bird corresponds so exactly in size, figure, and colour of 

 plumage, with that of Europe of the same name, as to place 

 their identity beyond a doubt. They inhabit, during summer, 

 the most northern parts of Canada, and still more remote 

 northern countries, from whence they migrate at the com- 

 mencement of winter. They appear in the Gennesee country 

 with the first deep snow, and on that account are usually 

 called by the title of snow birds. As the female is destitute 

 of the crimson on the breast and forehead, and the young 

 birds do not receive that ornament till the succeeding spring, 

 such a small proportion of the individuals that form these 

 flocks are marked with red, as to induce a general belief 

 among the inhabitants of those parts that they are two different 

 kinds associated together. Flocks of these birds have been 

 occasionally seen in severe winters in the neighbourhood of 



VOL. II. c 



