486 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



upper edge of the ear-coverts, the other along the lower edge. The lining 

 of the wing is witliout any red tinge, seen in all specimens of the true 

 amcrinuia and mcdmna ; the wings and tail are pure sepia-brown, quite dif- 

 ferent from the others ; and the featliers show no red margins. The lower 

 mandilile is very much curved. (May not this he like some Siberian style ?) 



No 21,868, from Washington Territory, has the liill neai'Iy as slender as in 

 C. leucopUra, but tliere is nothing else jieculiar. 



Habits. The common Ked Crossbill of America is a bird of very irreg- 

 ular distribution, abundant in some places at certain seasons, anil again rarely 

 seen for several years. It is a Northern species, found in summer cliiefly 

 in the more northern portions of the United States, and also found through- 

 out the year in the Alleghanies, in Peun.sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to 

 Georgia. A closely allied variety is also found in tlie alpine regious of Vera 

 Cruz and other departments of Me.xico. 



Dr. Suckley found this species quite abundant at Puget Sound, in certain 

 seasons. This was especially so in the spring of 1854, though afterwards he 

 met with but few. He noticed a pair on tlie ground near a jjooI of rain-water. 

 They were very tame, and alloweil a near a^^proach. Dr. Cooper found it very 

 abundant near tlie coast, wliere it feeds, in winter, on the seeds of tlie black 

 sj^ruce, retiring in summer to the mountains to breed, but returning in Sep- 

 tember. He ne\er observed any in the iir forests of tlie Coast Eange. In 

 the Sierra Ne\'ada, latitiule 39°, Dr. Cooper found tliese birds in considerable 

 numbers, September, 1863, and in winter they liave been obtained about San 

 Francisco. They seem to be most attracted to the forests of spruces, cypresses, 

 and red-woods, the cones of which are most readily broken. They occasion- 

 ally descend to the ground, in the Eocky Mountains, in search of the seeds 

 of small plants, and also for water. 



Mr. Bischoff obtained specimens of this species at Sitka, but it was not 

 noticed in the territory of tlie Yukon River by Mr. Dall, or any of his party, 

 and it was met with by Mr. Piidgway on the East Humboldt Mountains only. 

 There they were occasionally seen among the willows and small aspens bor- 

 dering the streams. Their common note was a fine and frequently repeated 

 chick-chick-chick, very different from the plaintive notes of the C. Icucoptcm. 



In New England tliey are of somewhat irregular occurrence, though in 

 Maine and in the northern portions of Vermont and New Hampshire tliey 

 are more or less resident. In Eastern Massachusetts they are comparatively 

 rare, excepting that, at irregular intervals, they come in large Hocks during 

 the winter. This was .so to a remarkable degree, in the winter of ] 832, and 

 more recently in 18G2, when, Mr. Maynard states, they remained until April. 

 Tliey were then in their summer plumage, and also in full song. In August, 

 1868, they again became quite numerous, and had just before appeared in 

 large numbers in Western Maine, doing great damage to the oats, and disap- 

 pearing as soon as these had been harvested. Mr. Maynard thinks tliat these 

 birds were the same with those afterwards so numerous in Massachusetts. 



