FINCHES. 1T7 



d. The song of the White-winged Crossbills, says Dr. 

 Brewer, is ''irregular and varied, but sweet and musical." 

 These birds have a plaintive cry, distinct from the notes of 

 the Red Crossbill. 



11. PINICOLA. 



A. ENUCLEATOR. PiJie Gvosbeok, In Massachusetts a 

 winter visitant of very irregular appearance.* 



a. 8-9 inches long. $ , carmine. Back, dusky-streaked. 

 Belly, almost white. Wings and tail, dusk}^ (or black) ; for- 

 mer with much white. § , " ashy gray above and streaked. 

 Paler below, and not streaked." Crown (and rump), marked 

 with rusty yellow. 



h. Dr. Brewer says : " No positively identified eggs of 

 the American Pine Grosbeak are as yet known in collections." 

 A European specimen measures about l.OOx.75 of an inch, 

 and is greenish, blotched and spotted with brown and purplish, 

 chiefly dark tints. Mr. Boardman found near Calais, Maine, 

 " in an alder bush, in a wet meadow," a nest and two eggs, 

 referable to this species. 



c. The Pine Grosbeaks spend the summer season in the 

 cold regions which lie to the northward of New England, and 

 though, I believe, common winter residents in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, are rather rare, or at least irregular, in their ap- 

 pearance about Boston, and other parts of this State. They 

 are sometimes common here throughout the winter, wandering 

 in large flocks from place to place ; but at other times they 

 are wholly absent during the year, or at the most are seen but 

 once or twice after a cold " snap " or a heavy storm. I have 

 seen tbeiii from the first of November until the latter part of 

 March, though their departure usually occurs earlier in the 

 season, since they habitually breed in March and A])ril. It is 

 to be remarked that among our winter birds of this family, the 

 young almost invariably predominate, and often are unaccom- 

 panied by mature specimens. This interesting fact has not, so 



* A common but irregular winter has been found repeatedly in midsum- 



visitor to southern New Eng'land. some- mer among the mountains of northern 



times — as in the winter of 1892-93 — New England, where it doubtless 



occurring in very great numbers. It breeds sparingly, — W. B. 



