69 



visit my pine trees in February. They were daily visitors all through 

 March and until the 17th of April. From that day until May 8th none 

 were seen, but from the 8th to the 14th they were again daily callers. 

 After this date they were noticed twice ; a party of six on June 5th, and 

 two birds a male and female, in one of my pines on July 21st. I looked 

 for their nest in the tree but, unfortunately it was not there ! I think 

 now that I have met with the species on several occasions in former years 

 but did not know them. Frequenters of private gardens they were only 

 seen when on wing or distant tree tops, and evaded identification. With 

 us it is a shy and restless bird, easily alarmed and flying a great distance. 

 Before taking wing and while in the air they are quite noisy with a note 

 closely resembling the parent call of Progne ; but when feeding in a pine 

 tree the whole troop keeps perfectly silent, and nothing is heard but the 

 noise made by breaking the cone scales. When present in May they are 

 also feeding in elms." Mr. W. S. Blatchley gives me the following notes : 

 •' While sitting on the porch of a farm house in Putnam county, Indiana, 

 July 11, 1892, I saw a single Cjofsbih, Loxia cur cirosir a minor, alight in the 

 top of a pine tree in the yard and begin searching the cones for seeds. I 

 watched it for almost ten minutes and then, that there might be no pos- 

 sibility of mistake in the identification, procured a gun and shot it. It 

 proved to be a young male. On July 15 another young male, i. e. a male 

 presumably of the previous year's hatching, was secured from the same 

 tree and kept in confinement for several days, but was finally allowed its 

 liberty." 



The American Crossbills have, as has been shown, been noted within 

 the region between the great lakes and the Ohio river in the follow- 

 ing winters: 1868-9; 1869-70; 1874-5; 1882-3; 1883-4; 1884-5; 1885-6; 

 1887-8; 1888-9; 1889-90; 1890-91; 1891-2. From 1882 to 1892 they were 

 only absent one year; 1886-7. In the winters of 1882-3, 1884-5, 1887-8 

 the area of dispersal was wide anil the birds seem to have been generally 

 distributed. Other years as 1868-9, 1869-70, 1883-4, they appeared, or at 

 least were observed, in but few localities but where noted they were 

 abundant. 



The results of the inquiries concerning its summer ran»e, particularly 

 with relation to the Ohio valley and the territory adjacent thereto, have 

 been wholly unexpected. Summing up the occurrence in summer and 

 the evidence of its breeding in the region last referred to we note as fol- 

 lows: In the summer of 1869 they were abundant in the vicinity of 



