170 Field and Forest Rambles. 



The tameness of forest birds is not confined to winter, and 

 times when there is a difficulty of procuring food, for in the 

 crossbills I found them equally fearless in midsummer; indeed, 

 in the solitudes of the primeval forest, and where animals 

 have been little disturbed, we find its denizens, like the 

 wild fowl on Enoch Arden's island, " so wild that they are 

 tame." 



The loud canary-like note of the white-winged crossbill is 

 seldom uttered in captivity, and is replaced more or less by a 

 low, sweet, warbling measure, evidently a love song, like that 

 of the thrushes referred to in the last chapter. Of the many 

 cage-birds I have kept, none seemed to take to confinement 

 more readily than this finch, the creature being quite as indif- 

 ferent a few minutes after capture as if had been born in con- 

 finement ; indeed, fear of man seemed quite unknown to them. 

 It must be stated, however, that the individuals referred to 

 were captured in a forest remote from human habitations, and 

 probably had never been molested. It is remarkable, more- 

 over, to observe how fear is developed among wilderness 

 animals; not, however, by man's presence alone, so much as 

 by the noise of fire-arms ; hence, in the savage times of stone 

 and bronze, many of the larger mammals are likely to have 

 long retained their primordial indifference of him. 



The Pine Bullfinch (L. enucleator) is said to differ from the 

 European bird of the same name only in being larger, the 

 wing of the former, according to Baird,* being 476 inches, 

 but that of several adult males and females procured by me 

 in the New Brunswick forests did not exceed 4*40 inches, thus 

 conforming to the size of the Old World specimens. Although 

 many are resident, like the last, the majority arrive in September 

 from the northern regions, returning in spring. I noticed a great 

 preponderance of females in winter ; and although the young 

 of the year resemble the latter, and do not attain the beautiful 

 red plumage of the male until the second year, among very 

 * "Pacific Railway Report," p. 410. 



