526 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paRT i 



Of its range, he says: 



Resident in the pine forest belt in the mountains of the tableland of Mexico; 

 all too little known, but apparently of vagrant and erratic habits, with a variable 

 breeding season; apparently much less common or less well known, northward to 

 San Luis Potosi and Chihuahua; unrecorded as yet from Sonora and Oaxaca, and 

 several more central states, btit this is probably without significance. 



As a vagrant of not infrequent occurrence northward, often in some numbers, 

 to the mountains of southern New Mexico (San Mateo Mts.; San Bernardino Mts., 

 probably bred once) ; southern Arizona (Santa Rita, Huachuca, Santa Catalina, 

 and Chiricahua Mts., where definitely bred once). ]\Iuch more rarely or casually 

 north to California (4 records, April to September), Nevada (Snake Mts., Sept. 18, 

 1934), and Colorado (Aurora, Nov. 2, 1919). Accidental in Kansas (Douglas 

 Co., Jan. 25, 1911) and Wyoming (Weston Co., Newcastle, July 4, 1935), 



Found in numbers in the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California, from 

 May-October, 1926, and almost certainly bred; status unknown. In June, 1925, 

 another subspecies was common and did not breed, and stricklandi was not found. 



Reliable accounts of the nesting or other habits of the Mexican cross- 

 bill seem to be lacking, but the following note, published by D. R. 

 Dickey and A. J. van Rossem (1923), on the presence and behavior 

 of some of these crossbills on Santa Cruz Island, Calif., is of interest: 

 "The 21 birds taken were submitted to Dr. H. C. Oberholser for de- 

 termination. He states they are unmistakably Loxia curvirostra 

 stricklandi and not bendirei. No breeding activity was noticeable 

 in any of the specimens taken, but males were seen courting on April 3. 

 The male birds attracted the attention of the females by squatting, 

 with tail spread, on a limb, and uttering a rather weak, linnet-like 

 twittering. The territory preferred by the birds was a burnt-land 

 pine area on which fire had killed the trees without destroying the 

 cones. The latter had been opened by the heat, thus affording the 

 birds easy access to the seed." 



Distribution 



Range. — Chiefly western and southern Mexico. 



Breeding range. — The Mexican crossbill breeds in northern Baja 

 California (Sierra Juarez, Sierra San Pedro Martir), southeastern 

 Arizona (Chiricahua Mountains), and southern New Mexico (Reserve) 

 south through the tableland of Mexico to Guerrero (Chilpancingo), 

 central western Veracruz (Las Vigas), and Chiapas (San Cristdbal; 

 intergrading between stricklandi and mesamericana) . 



Winter range. — Same as breeding range, wandering sporadically 

 north to central California (Pacific Grove), central Nevada (Wheeler 

 Peak, Charleston Mountains), southern Utah (Cedar Mountain, 

 Navajo Mountain), central Colorado (Aurora), eastern Kansas 

 (Lawrence), and central Texas (Fort Worth) and south to Guatemala, 

 (Sierra de las Minas). 



