June, 1889.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



89 



We found the colony much largei* than when 

 I last visited it, and most of the sets were fresh 

 and complete. After takiuff several sets of 

 five and six eggs, I put my hand in a nest 

 which seemed to he literally full of eggs, and 

 I thought at once of the dreams I had had of 

 taking phenomenally large sets of eggs. 



The nest was in a difficult position to get at, 

 and the eggs could only be taken out one at a 

 time. I counted them up to eight to myself 

 and that was too much, so I counted out aloud 

 "9, 10, 11," which cleaned out the nest. It 

 had got too dark to examine them, so packing 

 them up carefully we started for home. 



Upon examining them we could see at once 

 that they were laid by two birds, as six of the 

 eggs were much larger than the other five, and 

 much more heavily marked, and it was further 

 proved upon attempting to blow them. In the 

 six eggs the incubation was nearly completed, 

 while in the five eggs, two of them were fresh, 

 and in the other three incubation had com- 

 menced, showing that this set had been sat 

 upon from the time the first one was laid. 



C. E. Iloi/le. 



W. Millbury, Mass. 



Nesting of the American Crossbill. 



A short time ago I wrote an article for the 

 O. & O. in reference to the nest and eggs of 

 the White-winged Crossbill {Loxia leucoptera). 

 Since then I have been so fortunate as to find 

 the nest and eggs of the American Crossbill 

 {Loxia curvirostra minor). I had observed for 

 the past two weeks a male bird frequenting 

 a pine and spruce wood in the neighborhood 

 of our city, and watclied him closely, but 

 never having seen a female in the vicinity I 

 had about concluded to abandon the search 

 for the nest. 



While sitting on a log on the morning of the 

 30th of March, however, I observed the male 

 bird on top of a spruce tree busy picking at 

 the cones. After a time he flew directly to a 

 large spruce, and having taken an observation 

 from the top proceeded along a brancli into a 

 suspicious looking clump on the end. After 

 remaining a few moments he flew oft'. There 

 was the nest. The female was on the eggs, 

 and I am under the impression that she seldom, 

 if ever, left it during incubation, and that the 

 male bird carried to her the food he had col- 

 lected from the spruce cones. 



I am led to this conclusion from the fact 

 that the female was never once seen during the 

 two weeks that the male was being watched; 

 and from the persistency with which she re- 



fused to leave the nest, although a pei'son 

 ascended the tree, and with a stick endeavored 

 to dislodge the sitting bird, she would not 

 move, but pecked at the stick that touched 

 her. It is possible that this is a wise jirovision 

 to secure the eggs from the cold, as the temper- 

 ature the night before was 80° lowest, 46° high- 

 est, and ice formed in a pond within fifty 

 yards of the nest to the depth of half an inch ; 

 and two days after (the first of April) we had one 

 of the heaviest snow storms of the winter. 

 Should the eggs be left for even a short space 

 of time in such weather they would perish. 



Owing to the inaccessible position of the 

 nest I had to leave it for a time, and returned 

 in the afternoon with appliainces for securing 

 it. By passing a rope with a hook attached to 

 it over the branch above the nest, and then 

 making fast the hook to the branch on which 

 the nest was built, I was able from the ground 

 to support the end. My son, who had ascended 

 the tree, then, with a saw, cut the branch 

 close to the main trunk, and both ends were 

 then lowered simultaneously. During all this 

 time the female bird retained her position on 

 the eggs, and before the nest had come within 

 reach, owing to the intercession of other 

 branches, I found it impossible to keep the 

 unwieldy branch level, and the eggs would 

 have fallen to tlie ground had not the parent 

 bird been on the nest. Anticii^ating some such 

 disaster I took oft" my overcoat and had it held 

 under the nest, and when the female left the 

 nest one egg dropped out and was caught un- 

 injured in the improvised blanket. The other 

 egg was soon secured, and the nest and branch 

 lowered to the ground. The female bird was 

 secured without much difficulty, and when the 

 male (who was away) returned he also was 

 shot. 



I now have the branch containing the nest 

 and eggs, and the parent birds, and they form 

 a most interesting group. On examining the 

 two birds I was confirmed in my impression 

 that the female was fed on the nest by her 

 mate, for while he had a crop full of fine seeds, 

 the female's crop was empty. 



The tree on which the nest was found was a 

 large spruce about seventy-five feet liigh. The 

 nest was on the end of a branch about thirty 

 feet fi'om the ground. A small branch had 

 been partly broken at some time and had 

 turned back on the main branch. It had con- 

 tinued growing, and had formed a snug, well- 

 sheltered clump. In the little bower formed 

 by the secured branch, the Crossbills had built 

 a neat nest of fine grass and moss. 



