158 
THE WHITE-CROWNED FINCH. 
in the autumn of 1817. I then thought it the handsomest bird of its kind, 
and my opinion still is that none other known to me as a visiter or inhabitant 
of the United States, exceeds it in beauty. I procured five individuals, three 
of which were in full plumage and proved to be males. The sex of the other 
two could not be ascertained ; but I have since become convinced that these 
birds lose the white stripes on the head in the winter season, when they 
might be supposed to be of a different species. During spring and summer 
the male and the female are of equal beauty, the former being only a little 
larger than the latter. The young which I procured in Labrador, shewed 
the white stripes on the head as they were fully fledged, and I think they 
retain those marks in autumn longer than the old birds, of which the fea- 
thers have become much worn at that season. In the winter of 1833, I 
procured at Charleston, in South Carolina, one in its brown livery. 
One day, while near American Harbour, in Labrador, I observed a pair of 
these birds frequently resorting to a small hammock of firs, where I con- 
cluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I intimated my 
suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept through the tangled 
branches, and examined the place, but without success. Determined, how- 
ever, to obtain our object, we returned with hatchets, cut down every tree to 
its roots, removed each from the spot, pulled up all the mosses between them, 
and completely cleared the place; yet no nest did we find. Our disappoint- 
ment was the greater that we saw the male bird frequently flying about with 
food in its bill, no doubt intended for its mate. In a short while, the pair 
came near us, and both were shot. In the female we found an egg, which 
was pure white, but with the shell yet soft and thin. On the 6th of July, 
while my son was creeping among some low bushes, to get a shot at some 
Red-throated Divers, he accidentally started a female from her nest. It made 
much complaint. The nest was placed in the moss, near the foot of a low 
fir, and was formed externally of beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches 
like the coarse hair of some quadruped, internally of very fine dry grass, 
arranged with great neatness, to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with 
a full lining of delicate fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. It was 5 
inches in diameter externally, 2 in depth, 2i in diameter within, although 
rather oblong, and If deep. In one nest we found a single feather of the 
Willow Grouse. The eggs, five in number, average I of an inch in length, 
are proportionally broad, of a light sea-green colour, mottled toward the 
larger end with brownish spots and blotches, a few spots of a lighter tint 
being dispersed over the whole. This description differs greatly from that 
of the nest and eggs of this species given by others, who, I apprehend, have 
mistaken for them those of the Fox-tailed Sparrow, or the Anthus Spinoletta. 
We found many nests, which were all placed on the ground, or among the 
