470 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



soiled white. Many young males (perhaps all) wear the plumage of the female luitil at 

 least a year old, perhaps longer, and they sing freely and breed in this plumage. Adult 

 males in winter are darker and more purplish, but at best the bird is never purple, but 

 rather crimson. 



Length 5.50 to G.25 inches; wing 3.15 to 3.40; tail 2.30 to 2.50. Female sliglitly smaller 

 than male. 



209. Red Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm.). (521) 



Synonyms: American Red Crossbill, American Crossbill, Common Crossbill. — Cruci- 

 rostra minor, Brehm, 1846. — Curvirostra americana, Wilson. — Loxia americana, Bonap. 

 — Loxia curvivostra minor, Ridgw., 1885, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886. 



Figure 111. 



Size of the English Sparrow; both mandibles curved and crossed at the 

 tip (Fig. Ill); no white on the wings. General color brick-red (either 

 dull or bright), greenish-yellow, or brownish-yellow, the rump always 

 either red or yellow. 



Distribution. — -Northern North America, resident sparingly south in 

 the United States to Maryland and Tennessee in the Alleghanies. Irregu- 

 larly abundant in winter. 



In Michigan the distribution of the Red Crossbill is similar to that of the 

 Pine Grosbeak except that it is more common. In other words it is a 

 frequent winter visitor to most parts of the state, occurring 

 often in large flocks and being most abundant in regions 

 where conifers are plentiful. Unlike the Pine Grosbeak, 

 however, the Red Crossbill often spends the summer in 

 the more northern portions of the state, especially in pine 

 and spruce regions, and it probably nests within our i'''^- m- 



T •, ^ , • r j-i lied Crossbill. 



hmits not mfrequently. 



It often appears in the middle and southern counties, in flocks of fifty 

 or more individuals in October and November, moving restlessly from 

 place to place, feeding mostly on the seeds of cones and buds of evergreens, 

 but also eating weed-seeds and wild fruits of various kinds. Often it is 

 remarkably unsuspicious, and with care specimens may sometimes be 

 caught in the hand, or more readily with a butterfly net. It is very fond 

 of the seeds of the arbor-vitse (Thuja), as well as those of tamarack and the 

 various spruces, firs and pines, and the peculiar structure and great strength 

 of the bill enable it to tear open the strongest and toughest cones and 

 pick out the nutritious seeds. A flock of a hundred or more of these 

 birds tearing open the cones of the Norway Pine makes noise enough to 

 attract the attention of the most careless observer, and the commotion is 

 increased by the chattering of the birds, which, however, whistle more 

 loudly while on the wing than when at work on the trees. 



Although the species is almost universally distributed through the state, 

 it is by no means equally common in all parts, or even in the same place 

 in successive winters. In the southeastern part of the state it seems to 

 be rather rare, while in the central and northern portions of the Lower 

 Peninsula, and much of the upper Peninsula, it occurs in some numbers 

 almost every winter and sometimes in enormous flocks. On the other hand, 

 there have been occasional winters when apparently no specimens were 

 noted in any part of the state. 



