THE CROSSBILLS. 5 71 



of matted shreds of cedar bark, which formed the principal 

 body of the structure, a few strips of the same appearing 

 around the upper border, the whole succeeded on the inside 

 by a sort of felting of finer material, which received the 

 scanty lining of black horse-hair, fine rootlets, grass stems, 

 pieces of string, and two or three feathers. This shallow 

 felting of the inner nest can apparently be removed intact 

 from the body of the structure, which, besides the above- 

 mentioned materials, contained small pieces of moss, leaves, 

 grass, string, cottony substances, and the green foliage of 

 cedar. The nest measured internally two and one-half 

 inches in diameter by over one and a quarter in depth; being 

 in diameter externally about four inches, and rather shal- 

 low in appearance. 



"The fresh eggs are, in ground color, of a decided greenish 

 tint, almost immaculate on the smaller end, but on the op- 

 posite side, with irregular spots and dottings of lavender- 

 brown of slightly varying shade, interspersed with a few 

 heavy surface-spots of dark purple-brown. There is no ap- 

 proach in the arrangement of these to a circle, but between 

 the apex of the larger end and the greatest diameter of the 

 ^^^ is a fine hair-like surface line; in two examples it forms 

 a complete though irregular circle, and incloses the princi- 

 pal spots. In the other ^^^^ which is the largest, this line 

 is not qufte complete, and the primary blotches are wanting, 

 but the secondary markings are correspondingly larger and 

 more numerous. In another &^^ there are two perfect 

 figures of 3 formed on the sides by the secondary marks, 

 one of them large and singularly symmetrical. The eggs 

 measure respectively .74 x -56, .75X-58, .78X.59." 



The curious bill of this bird is in special adaptation to 

 its food and the manner of securing it. Those sharply- 

 pointed curves of the mandibles serve as the most con- 



