Redpoll SONG-BIRDS.
Song: Winter note ; a snapping chirp.
Season : An irregular winter visitor.
Breeds : Northward in late winter and early spring.
Nest : Among the twigs or in the fork of a tree, having a base of bark and sticks, and being lined with finer materials.
Eggs: 3—4, greenish, marked with brown and lilac at larger end.
Range : Northern North America; resident sparingly south in the Eastern States to Maryland and Tennessee, and in the Alle- ghanies; irregularly abundant in winter; resident south in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado.
This bird of evergreens and cold weather, the Red Cross bill, is chiefly a winter visitor here, varying greatly in abun- dance. It is impossible to confuse it with any other bird, as the colour is of a different shade from the red of the Pine Finch and Cardinal, and its warped bill is a distinctive mark. The beak seeins especially constructed for snapping the scales from the cones, whose seeds furnish its food.
A very strange effect is produced when a flock of Cross- bills settle in the pines north of the garden, and mingle their snapping chirp with the dry crackling of the cones that they are dissecting. There is a. suppressed bustle about the whole proceeding; and if you close your eyes you may imagine that the sounds proceed from the rending of the corn from the stalk at an old time husking»bee. As with all weird looking birds and animals, the Crossbill is the subject of many tales, one of which Longfellow translated from the German of Julius Mosen, under the title of “ The Legend of the Crossbill.”
Redpoll: Acanthia linuria.
Redpoll Linnet.
Length: 5.60 inches.
Male : Head, neck, breast, and rump washed with rich crimson, over a ground of gray and brown. Back, wings, and tail dusky; dusky white beneath. Tail short and forked ; wings long and pointed. Bill very sharp, and either yellow, tipped with dusky, or black ; feet dark.
Female : Dingy, having the crimson only on the crown.
Song: A Canary-like call note and a lisping song; sometimes given when flocking as well as in the breeding-season.
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