THE OOLOOIST. 



77 



hatched before it Avas discovered. The 

 eggs are slightly larger and more heav- 

 ily marked than the Red-ej^ed. 



The Warbling Vireo is not common. 

 They much resemble the Red-eyed and 

 the eggs are scarcely distinguishable. 

 They are a bird of the tree tops and the 

 nest is placed from 15 to 40 feet from 

 the ground.' 



The Blue-headed ^Vireo occurs as a 

 migrant. 



William I. Comstock, 



Norwalk, Conn. 



The Crossbill in Iowa- 



I noticed a short article by W. W. 

 Searles, on the America Crossbill, in 

 the January OiiLOGisT, and thought a 

 few notes on that bird might be of in- 

 terest to your readers. 



My acquaintance with the Cro.ssbill 

 began in the fall and winter of '84, I 

 was then living in DeWitt, in the east- 

 ern part of this state. In our yard 

 there were several large evergreen 

 trees, and in these the Crossbills would 

 spend a goodly part of each day, as long 

 as the Hock staj'ed in the vicinity. 



The fall of '84 is as early as I remem- 

 ber seeing the birds, but each fall and 

 winter after that, up to '88, when we 

 moved from the place, the Crossbills 

 were regular winter visitors. Some 

 times they would stay in the vicinity as 

 long as two weeks, so I managed to see 

 a good deal of them. Our house was 

 so situated that a balcony extended to 

 within a few feet of the branches of two 

 large evergreens, and from this place I 

 have watched the birds for hours at a 

 time. Cones were very numerous on 

 these two trises, which made it a favor- 

 ite resort.. 



Whih" feeding the Crossl)ill is very 

 intent upon its work, and docs not 

 seem to care "which end up" it is. 

 They cling to the cones in all manner 

 of positions, and a jx-rson may ap- 

 proach quite close to a Hock without 



startling the birds. The lower })ranch- 

 es of these trees were not over five feet 

 from the ground, and I have often ap- 

 proached to within ea.sy reach of the 

 Crossbills, but on the least suspicious 

 movement, the whole Hock rises, utter- 

 ing asharp, peculiar cry of one syllable. 

 Ordiniarly, when so startled, the Hock 

 settles in the near neighborhood, after 

 making several circles overhead. 



The largest flock I ever saw number- 

 ed about lifty, tiie usual numbei- Ijcing 

 twenty-five or thirty, and in all the 

 flocks I have seen, I notice that gener- 

 ally about two-thirds of the birds are 

 females. 



Formerly I thought these birds must 

 be kept on rather short i-atlons, as the 

 seeds are so hard to extract from the 

 cones, but upon examining the stomachs 

 of several specimens, I found that I 

 was much mistaken. The}'^ were liter- 

 ally stuflfed with seeds. Their peculiar 

 shaped bill is adapted to this particular 

 purpose, and when the Crossbill gets to 

 work in earnest, it makes the chips fly. 

 After leaving DeWitt, I did not see 

 the Crossbill until the fall of '90, when 

 we moved to Hampton. Here I again 

 renewed my acquaintance with the 

 bird. 1 saw a small flock in November, 

 1890, and flocks of about twenty on 

 Nov. 15th and Dec. 5th, 1891. This 

 year ('92) a flock of about twenty-live has 

 been in the vicinity, and I have seen 

 the birds almost every day during the 

 last week of January and first of Feb- 

 ruary. 



One thing I noticed in the Cro.ssbill 

 this month, which is new to me. I saw 

 a flock feeding on ash .seeds, picking 

 them from the ground under a tree. 

 I had su])posed their food to consist 

 entirely of cone .seeds.. 



To conclude with, I will sa^', the 

 Crossbill is, in my estimation, a very 

 model of industry, and one which I 

 much adnure. 



FUANK H SlIOKMAKKK, 



HaniptdM, Iowa. 



