THE AMERICAN CROSSBILL. jz 



WHEN a bird's pastures are the tree-tops it is possible for it to live 

 a quite secluded life here in Washington. And, indeed, we know the Cross- 

 bill chiefly as a wandering voice or, rather, a vocal babel, passing from summit 

 to summit in the grim fir forest. But on a rare day, it may be in Spokane, 

 or it may be in Tacoma, the birds descend tO' human levels and are discovered 

 feeding busily on their favorite pine cones. The birds are perfectly in- 

 different to equilibrium, and feed any side up without care. While thus 

 engaged they may e.xhibit little fear of the beholder and sometimes venture 

 within reach ; but as often, for some whimsical reason they are up and away 

 again as tho seized by evil spirits. 



The Crossbill owes its peculiar mandibles to an age-long hankering for 

 pine-seeds (using that word in the generic sense), a desire fully satisfied 

 according to the fashion of that Providence which works so variously thru 

 Nature, and whose method we are pleased to call evolution. The bill of the 

 bird was not meant for an organ of prehension, and Buffon, the Deist, once 

 won a cheap applause by railing at the Almighty for a supposed oversight in 

 this direction : but as matter of fact, its wonderful crossed mandibles enable 

 the Crossbill to do what no other bird can; viz., pry and cut C)pen the scales 

 of a fir cone, in order to extract the tiny seed with its tongue. 



These birds are not entirely confined to a vegetable diet, for I once 

 detected a group of them, feeding industriously in a small elm tree which 

 was infested with little gray insects, plant-lice or something of the sort. The 

 presence of these insects, in colonies, caused the edges of the leaves to shrivel 

 and curl tightly backward into a protective roll. Close attention showed that 

 the Crossbills were feeding exclusively upon these aphides. They first slit 

 open a leaf-roll with their scissor-bills, then extracted the insects with their 

 tongues, taking care apparently tO' secure most of the members of each colony 

 before passing to the next. 



Crossbills also feed to some extent upon the ground, where they pick 

 up fallen seeds and other tidbits. Mr. J. F. Galbraith, a ranger of the Wash- 

 ington Forest Reserve, first called my attention to another purpose which 

 the birds have in visiting the ground. He had noticed how at certain places, 

 and notably where dish-water was liabitually thrown, the Crossbills were 

 wont to congregate, and, turning the head sidewise, tO' thrust out the tongue 

 along the bare ground in a most puzzling manner. Suspecting at last the 

 real state of alTairs, he sprinkled the ground with salt, and upon their return 

 the birds licked it up with great avidity. Mr. Galbraith claims to have tried 

 this experiment successfully upon numerous occasions. The birds do' not 

 appear to recognize tlie salt at first sight, but soon learn to resort to estab- 

 lished salt-licks in open places. Rev. Fred M. McCreary also reports similar 

 habits in connection with certain mineral springs in the Suiattle country. 



