LINCOLN’S PINE WOOD-FINCH. 
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 con- 
siderable distance, jerking its tail as it proceeds, and throwing itself at tho 
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 
outline, 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 
