Breeding of the American Crossbill 



By P. B. PEABODY 



Willi rhot()Krai>lis l.y tlu- Autlior 



DATA for the breeding of the Cro>sl)ilIs of \orth Ameiic ;i are so diffusively 

 shelved in the great libraries of our country, and the statements of 

 "lumber-jacks"' (thus called in the West), as given in a late number 

 of Bird-Lore, are so inadequate and so misleading, that the writer has thought 

 it no impertinence to give the readers of Bird-Lori: the summary of notes that 

 have been a-gathering during the past five years. In the West we see the Crossbill 

 (Loxia cnrvirostra strkklandi) only in July and August. It comes down from 

 the regions of the conifers, at that time, accomi)anied by its recently fledged 

 young, to fatten on the seeds of sunflowers and other like plants. (It is, of course, 

 the varying and local character of the most of the conifers that makes all Cross- 

 bills prone to wander.) From the (manuscript) pages of my 'Nesting Ways of 

 North American Birds' I collate the following facts: Five (manuscript) instances 

 of breeding furnished by courtesy of the National Museum, and data from 

 Labrador, Maine, New York, and Colorado, gi\e us, together, an aggregate 

 breeding range of eight months. 



What is probabl}' a topical nest of the American Crossbill is described by 

 Mr. Bicknell. The locality was, Riverdale, a suburb of New York City. The nest 

 was placed eighteen feet from the ground in a scantily branched cedar. The nest- 

 mass was inwrought with a number of the cedar twigs. Bits of spruce made up 

 the nest foundation. The next layer was of cedar bark; the third, which was 

 loosely fitted in, was of various finer materials. The lining was of horsehair, 

 grass, rootlets, bits of string, and a few feathers. The site of the nesting was in 

 plain view from passing roadways. "On the whole, the nest was rather shallow. " 

 Let us compare an account of British nesting, by Charles Dixon : 



" The Crossbill nests in firs or other evergreens. A number of twigs are loosely 

 laid together; these, with grasses and rootlets, forming the outside of the nest. All 

 this is warmly lined with wool, fur, hairs and feathers" (Birds' Nests). 



The American Crossbill is especially abundant in Nova Scotia; as one might 

 expect, R. W. and Harold Tufts found over nine nests, during one season, on one 

 small area. A letter from Robie Tufts describes average nests as usually well- 

 concealed, above. They were always, he stated, in large trees, and saddled on a 

 horizontal limb. The nest-materials were as follows: Usnea, twigs, decayed 

 wood, lichens, moss and plant-down. The linings were of dead grass, usnea, moss, 

 and sometimes feathers. Some nests were beautifully made, while others were 



*Most obviously, by light of the best nt-st-dcscriptions herein given, and of the studies which many 

 of us have made, in years gone by, the large globular nests of moss, with entrances at the side, — described 

 by Mrs. Wright (See Bird-Lore, November, 1908), — are not imputable to Loxia, the servile imitator- 

 in-nest-making of the Piiion Jays, but to the Red Squirrel. (This, beyond the merest shadow of a doubt.) 

 I cannot lay my hands on the note-book containing the list of the contents of the nest (taken, in place, 

 with the one remaining birdling), which is shown in the accompanying illustration. Thus much, however, 

 I can safely say, from memory: The nest was largely made of cedar and pine twigs, inwrought with fine 

 cedar bark and weathered plant-strippings. And it was marvclously like a miniature of the typical 

 nest of the Pifion Jay, — about tlirce-fifths, I should say, of the size of the (normal) latter. 



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