SITKA CROSSBILL 519 



reached the Atlantic States in numbers from Massachusetts to South 

 CaroUna, and in the interior south to Louisiana." His paper gives 

 full details with dates and locahties. In the past decade, this sub- 

 species has been reported at a number of localities in the Great 

 Plains and eastern United States. 



George Willett (1921) writes, from Craig, Alaska: 



During the seven summers and one winter spent by the writer in southeastern 

 Alaska previous to 1920 there was no time when this bird was not in evidence 

 and in most localities it was very common. From observations covering this 

 period it developed that the young were raised in both spring and fall, though 

 whether the same birds nested twice each year was not determined. In late 

 August, 1919, vicinity of Craig, birds were paired and males singing. Fully 

 fledged young were plentiful in late September and early October. Again in 

 late JNIarch and early April, 1920, many birds were paired and evidently nesting. 

 A pair of breeding birds was taken April 1 and another pair, also breeding birds, 

 April 2. On April 27 a pair of adults were seen feeding full-grown young on the 

 ground. Since early summer of 1920, though the writer has covered hundreds of 

 miles of territory, not a single crossbill has been met with, and they are apparently 

 absent from the region at present writing. The species is known to be very 

 irregular in its habits, but that it should desert such a large section of territory 

 in which it is normally abundant and should remain absent for such an extended 

 period seems worthy of record. 



We seem to have no further information on the nesting habits of 

 this subspecies. Its molts and plumages are apparently similar to 

 those of the other races. Its food is evidently the same, including 

 its extreme fondness for salt. Theed Pearse (1929) describes two 

 interesting feeding habits of the Sitka crossbill, as observed on Van- 

 couver Island. Of some birds feeding in a box elder tree, he writes: 



While in the tree it was apparent that some of the birds were collecting food 

 from the leaves, and examination showed that many of the young leaves carried 

 a small grayish black aphis on the under side. With glasses it was possible to 

 watch the bird actually pick off the insect, and this was done in a quite different 

 way than would be done by a bird with a regularly shaped beak. It would be 

 quite impossible for the crossbill to "pick off" a small insect, and they captured 

 them by laying the side of the beak on the leaf and catching the aphis at the 

 intersection of the two mandibles, a sideways motion and invariably successful. 



* * * These aphides were not the only food this flock of crossbills were after. 

 Some of the birds in the maples and others in nearby fruit trees were tearing at 

 some plant-like substance held in the feet against the branch. This turned out 

 to be the seedheads of the dandelion {Taraxacum officinale Weber); the bird had 

 cut off the head from the growing plant and then carried it to the tree to eat. 

 The heads chosen were those that had just closed after blooming, and the birds 

 tore them open to get at the seeds at the base. 



H. B. Tordoff wiites Taber: "In all probability, the variations in 

 bill size among North American subspecies of the Red Crossbill 

 reflect differences in dietary preference, but this has yet to be proved 

 for any of the races. The small-billed sitkensis should, when studied, 

 prove to be especially informative in this regard." 



