Concord, Mass.
1909.
March 18
(No 3)
thicket of blackberry bushes intermingled with bushy
young white pines where the ground was covered deep with
fallen leaves, chiefly those of the gray birches that rose above
the lesser growths. On approaching these birds closely
(within 20 feet) I was surprised to find that they were
scattering the leaves about by picking them up in their
bills and flinging them rather violently to right & left
and also by "scratching", much after the manner of
Fox Sparrows, that is by first giving a bouncing hop
forward and then kicking the leaf backward with both
feet just as they alighted on it. Of this there can
be absolutely no doubt for I saw it unmistakably
dozens of times & for the first time in my life.
As the birds were all collected together within the
space of a square yard or less they made the leaves
fly in showers & soon uncovered the ground where they
Redpolls feeding on ground in dense thicket,
flinging leaves about & scratching like Fox Sparrows