LESSER RED-POLL. 
269 
the lower at the tip ; irides, dark hazel ; the nostrils are 
covered with recumbent, hair-like feathers, of drab 
colour; a line of brown extends from the eyes, and 
encircles the base of the bill, forming’, in some speci- 
mens, a patch below the chin ; the crown is ornamented 
with a pretty large spot of deep shining crimson; the 
throat, breast, and rump stained with the same, but of 
a more delicate red ; the belly is of a very pale ash, or 
dull white; the sides are streaked with dusky, the 
whole upper parts are brown or dusky, the plumage 
edged with yellowish white and pale ash, the latter 
most predominant near the rump ; wings and tail dusky, 
the latter is forked, and consists of twelve feathers edged 
with white ; the primaries are very slightly tipt and 
edged with white ; the secondaries more so; the greater 
and lesser coverts are also tipt with white, forming 
the bars across the wings ; thighs, cinereous ; legs and 
feet, black : hind claw, considerably hooked, and longer 
than the rest. The female is less bright in her plumage 
above ; and her under parts incline more to an ash 
colour ; the spot on her crown is of a golden crimson, 
or reddish saffron colour. One male specimen was con- 
siderably larger than the rest ; it measured five inches 
and three quarters in length, and nine inches and a 
quarter in extent ; the breast and rump w ere tawny ; 
its claws were uncommonly long, the hind one mea- 
sured nearly three eighths of an inch ; and the spot on 
the crown was of a darker hue than that of the rest. 
The call of this bird exactly resembles that of the 
fringilla tristis, or common yellow bird of Pennsyl- 
vania. The red-polls linger in the neighbourhood of 
Philadelphia until about the middle of April ; but 
whither they retire for the business of incubation, we 
cannot determine. In common with almost all our 
finches, the red-polls become very fat, and are then 
accounted delicious eating. During the last winter, 
many hundreds of them were exposed to sale in the 
Philadelphia market, and were readily purchased by 
those epicures, whose love of variety permits no deli- 
cacy to escape them.] 
