444 
FEMALE WHITE- WINGED CROSSBILL. 
getlier with the pine bullfinches, lose, instead of acquiring, 
brilliancy of colours, as they advance in age. 
This species inhabits, during summer, the remotest regions 
of North America, and it is therefore extraordinary that it 
should not have been found in the analogous climates of the 
Old Continent. In this, its range is widely extended, as we 
can trace it from Labrador, westward to Fort de la Fourche, 
in latitude 56°, the borders of Peace river, and Montague 
island on the northwest coast, where it was found by Dixon. 
Round Hudson’s Bay it is common and well known, probably 
extending far to the northwest, as Mackenzie appears to allude 
to it when speaking of the only land bird found in the desolate 
regions he was exploring, which enlivened, with its agreeable 
notes, the deep and silent forests of those frozen tracts. It is 
common on the borders of Lake Ontario, and descends in au- 
tumn and winter into Canada and the northern and middle 
States. Its migrations, however, are very irregular. During 
four years it had escaped my careful researches, and now, 
while writing, (in the first week of November, 1827,) they are 
so abundant, that I am able to shoot every day great numbers 
out of flocks that are continually alighting in a copse of Jersey 
scrub-pine [Finns imps) even opposite my window. It is pro- 
per to mention, that owing perhaps to the inclemency of the 
season, which has so far been distinguished by rains, early 
frost, and violent gales of wind, there have been extraordinary 
flights of winter birds. Many flocks of the purple finch are 
seen in all directions. The American siskin, [Fringilla pinus^ 
Vv^ils.) of which I never saw a living specimen before, covers 
all the neighbouring pines and its favourite thistles with its 
innumerable hosts. The snow-bunting [Emberiza nivalis) has 
also made its appearance in New Jersey, though in small par- 
ties, after an absence of several years.* 
* This is the case also with the common crossbills and Eui’opean siskin, and 
has hardly yet met with any reasonable solution. See notes to these birds. 
—Ed. 
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