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PINE LINNET. 
group of thistles was seen by them. Wh$n feeding, they often hung head 
downwards, like so many Titmice, and as often would balance themselves 
on the wing, as if afraid to alight on the sharp points of the plahts, which, 
after all, they appeared greatly to prefer to all others. 
While among the Magdeleine Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, I fre- 
quently observed groups of five or six of these birds arriving from afar, and 
in different directions. In some instances, these flocks alighted on the 
spars and rigging of our vessel, the Ripley, as if to rest, when they would 
plume themselves, issue their plaintive call-notes, as if to announce to others 
(unseen by us) that they had alighted, and in a few minutes would leave 
us, and direct their course toward the nearest shores, perhaps following 
in the wake of other flocks. 
At the Harbour of Bras d’Or, on the coast of Labrador, in the end of 
July, we met with a great number of these birds. They were then accom- 
panied by their young, and moved in flocks composed of a single family, 
or at most of two. They haunted low thickets of willows and elders in the 
vicinity of water, and were extremely fearless and gentle, allowing the mem- 
bers of my party to approach them very near, so that we procured as many 
of them as we desired. No difference was observable either in the males 
or the females as to plumage, compared with that which they have in the 
winter, only that the yellow of the wings was brighter and richer than it is 
at that season. The young were already fully fledged, had the whole head 
of a clean plain grey tint, and although exhibiting the different markings 
elsewhere seen on the old birds, they had those markings depicted in 
feeble tints. Not a nest could we find, although I have no doubt that the 
birds which we saw had been reared in the immediate neighbourhood. 
In the State of Maine they are always abundant during winter. My 
young friend, Thomas Lincoln, informed me that, at that season, they flock 
in company with Crossbills, the Pine Grosbeak, the White-winged Cross- 
bill, and other species, are easily, caught, and require no particular care in 
keeping. 
This species sings while on the wing, as the Goldfinch is wont to do. Its 
notes are sweet, varied, clear, and mellow, and although somewhat resem- 
bling those of the birds just mentioned, are yet perfectly distinct from them. 
Its flight, however, is almost the same as that of the Goldfinch. Like that 
bird, it glides through the air in graceful deep curves, emitting its common 
call-note at every effort which it makes to propel itself. 
Those which I saw while in South Carolina, in company with my esteemed 
friend John Bachman, fed entirely on the seeds of the sweet gum, each 
bird hanging to a bur for awhile, and passing from one to another with great 
