OF VRTS AND SCIENCES. I . o 



the White Mountain valleys, and later in the season invades the 

 lower parts of the state ; again one sees but few even in the 

 most favorable localities. The Red Crossbill is mainly a bird 

 of the sub-Canadian areas, whose appearance at any season of 

 the year may be looked for, while the White-winged species 

 seems more definitely restricted, during summer at least, to the 

 upper Canadian forests, and rarely appears in the lowlands till 

 fall or winter. Mr. C. P. Goodhue ('77a, p. 49) has recorded 

 that a few have been known to breed near Webster. They 

 doubtless breed regularly also among the White Mountains, 

 whence I have had occasional reports of nests. The great cross- 

 bill flight of 1 899-1900, when this and the following species 

 were so abundant, is mentioned under Migration. 



166. Loxia leucoptera Gmel. White- winged Cross- 

 bill. 



A permanent resident of the upper Canadian spruce and fir 

 forests in the northern part of the state and above 3,000 feet on 

 the White Mountains ; elsewhere it is of uncertain and irregu- 

 lar occurrence, sometimes appearing in numbers during the 

 cold months. Among the White Mountains small flocks or sin- 

 gle birds are almost always to be found in summer in the damp 

 forests at the higher levels. Mr. Bradford Torrey has recorded 

 them in June at Eagle Lake, among the'Franconias, and Mr. 

 C. J. Maynard ('72) quotes Mr. William Brewster as having 

 found them at Franconia in summer, and adds that they were 

 common in June, 1870, at Lake Umbagog. On numerous camp- 

 ing trips on the higher White Mountains, the Presidential and 

 Carter ranges, I have usually found a few in summer ; and 

 among the wilder forests of the Carters, not infrequently I have 

 observed flocks of a dozen or twenty birds above 3,000 feet, in 

 June, July, and September. In the summer and fall of 1899, 

 and during the following winter there was an unusual incursion 

 of these birds over the southern part of the state ^nd beyond, 

 which has been considered at length in the chapter on Migra- 

 tion. I am informed by guides that Crossbills of this or the pre- 



10 



