Breeding of the American Crossbill 5 



of that entrancing study of nesting luihil, with tlu' ('r(»>hill>, which became for 

 me, during those brief Wyoming years, (|uilc Htlk- short of a veritable ])assion; 

 l)ut the expected never would ha])|)enl 



And yet the unexpected did, thus: ( )ii the crest of a cauon-niargiii, at dusk of 

 a heavenly evening, the rjth of April, I followed, crazily, in the wake of a con- 

 tinual disappearing of that rarest of Wyoming birds-of-transicnce-and-passage, 

 the Montana Junco. Throwing down, at last, all impedimenta — camera, hand- 

 bag, field-glass and all, — I ran, t"mall\-, down into a maze of cedars, into which my 

 bird had disapj^carcd, for the night. Resting a moment, I heard behind me, 

 a soft, hushing, whir of little wings. 'J'hen a hysterical " ( 7//7/-r7////-r/z///" cut 

 into the still air. M\ dcliglil was boundless when I recognized, as the source of 



SHOWIXG SITI': 



that unfamiliar sound, a female Crossbill. Hastening away and back for my 

 field-glass, I found, on my return, that the Crossbill had disai)i)eared. Search. — ■ 

 intent, exhaustive, painful, revealed nothing. 



I turned homeward. A dozen steps in advance, my sight turned skyward. 

 A slight nest loomed small in a little pine beside me, climbers were beaten against 

 the trunk; and instantly, "with many a flirt and flutter," with many a ''Chill- 

 chill-chill," a Crossbill left that nest. Then, as I neared the nest level, climbing 

 like any eager ten-\-ear-old, the coward Hew away. There were two tender young 

 in that scoop of a twiggy, l)ark-lined nest. 



