RED CROSSBILL 505 



The inner lining was made of a few pine needles, a thick layer of hairs from the 

 white-tailed deer and Usnea. 



The measurements of these four nests did not vary greatly. The 

 outside diameter varied from dji to 5K inches; the inner diameter was 

 uniformly about 2 inches; the outside depth varied from 3 to 3K inches; 

 and the inside depth was from 1%^ to 1^%8 inches. 



Dorothy E. Snyder (1951) located a nest at Andrews Point, Cape 

 Ann, Mass., during March 1950. This nest, "about 30 feet up in 

 a pitch pine * * * was saddled on a branch three feet from the tip 

 where the foliage was dense, and only a short distance from the upper 

 windows of a smmner cottage." The nest was blown down later and 

 the eggs were broken. 



The same observer (1954) fomid a partially completed nest in north- 

 eastern Massachusetts on Mar. 4, 1952, in a large group of exotic 

 Japanese black pines {Pinus thurhergii). The latter were fruiting 

 abundantly and provided a convenient food supply. The nest, com- 

 pleted by March 18, was 16 feet 2 inches from the ground — 24 inches 

 below the summit of the tree — and saddled in a thick tuft of needles 

 and cones on a branch a half -inch in diameter, only 2^ inches from the 

 trunk. Miss Snyder believes the first egg was laid on this date, but 

 she intentionally kept away from the nest untU March 27. On that 

 date it proved necessary to poke the female off the nest. The bird 

 would go to the nearest twig and return as soon as possible to the nest. 

 The three young seen in the nest April 3 were believed to have hatched 

 the previous day. The young were able to hold up their heads and 

 had a gray down covering on April 5, and apparently vacated the nest 

 on April 17. Incubation was performed only by the female. She was 

 fed on the nest by the male while the nestlings were small (up to 4 or 5 

 days), and then fed the young by regurgitation. Later, both parents fed 

 the young directly. Both parents swallowed the excreta mitU the last 

 week of occupancy of the nest, after which the outside became whitened. 

 Records at the nearby Coast Guard station indicated an average 

 temperature of 38 degrees F. for the overall period, with extremes of 

 17 and 51 degrees; during the April period there were 11 days of fog 

 or rain. 



Eggs. — The red crossbill usually lays three or four eggs, occasionally 

 five, E. P. Bicknell (1880) describes the eggs very well as follows: 



The fresh eggs are in ground color of a decided greenish tint, almost immaculate 

 on the smaller end, but on the opposite 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 approach in the arrangement of these 

 to a circle, but between the apex of the larger end, and the greatest diameter 

 of the egg, is a fine hair-like surface line; in two examples it forms a complete 

 though irregular circle, and encloses the principal spots. In the other egg, which 

 is the largest, this line is not quite complete and the primary blotches are wanting. 



