FRINGlLLIBiE — THE FIN-CIIES — CURVIROSTRA. ^49 



AVheii tlyiiig tliey have a loud, clear, and sharp call-note, liut are so silent 

 when feeding on the tops of the trees as to be found with ditticiilty. lu 

 snowy regions they become \evy tame, coming about houses in search of 

 food, and seem at all times very unsuspicious of danger. In orchards they 

 have been knijwu to destroy apples merely fur their seeds, and sometimes 

 to eat the buds of trees. 



In the spring the males have something of a song, but not very long nor 

 connected. Their gay plumage at that season looks so much like the young- 

 red cones of the spruces, among which they sit, that they are nut easily 

 distinguished. 



I never found their nests myself, but they are said to be laiilt in the forks 

 of fir-trees, as early as January or February, and the eggs, four or five, are 

 greenish-gray, with a circle of reddish-brown spots, points, and lines, chiefly 

 at the larger end, often also extending o\'er the whole surface. (Nuttall.) 



Mate, rcunsj-lvania. Female. 



Their feet are ^musually strong, and they use them as well as their bills in 

 climbing like parrots, hanging to the cones, head downwards, while twisting 

 off the scales by a dexterous turn of the bill, -which, though looking de- 

 formed, is admirably adapted for this purpose. 



Specimens from the mountains of California all appear to come very near 

 to the A-ariety with large bill, named C. Mcxicana by Strickland, and resi- 

 dent in the mountains of Mexico. Others, however, from "Washington Ter- 

 ritory, have the bill more like the Eastern form. 



Curvirostra leucoptera, (iMELix. 



THE -WHITE--WINGED CROSSBILL. 



Loxia Inintptera, Gst^-Lis, Syst. Nat. I. 1788, 540. — Audubon, Birds Amer. III. 190 ; pi. 

 201. — Ciin-iruatra leucoj/Ura, Wilson, Am. Oni. IV.; ]j1. x.xxi. — B.urd, Birds N. 

 Amur. 427. 



Sp. Cii.\u. Mdk', carminu-rc'il, tiii<;-c(l willi iliisky across (lie buck. Sides of body 

 under wiii"s streaked -with brown ; Irom the middle of the belly to tail co\erts -whitish, 



