38 THE WILSON BULLETIN— March, 1S21 



killing any of them, while others were reported as seen in the fall 

 of that year. In the case of birds killed since the approval and 

 promulgation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act it has not been 

 possible to get any reliable information about specimens reported 

 to have been taken. 



Myron H. Swenk. 

 Lincoln, Nebraska. 



Nesting of the Red Crossbill in Nebraska. 



On March 28, 1920, Messrs. Miles Greenleaf and William Marsh, 

 both of Omaha, found a nest of the Red Crossbill in Elmwood Park, 

 in the western part of Omaha. The nest w^as in the crotch of a 

 decayed boxelder tree in a well-protected ravine at a height of about 

 twenty feet from the ground. The female crossbill was on the nest, 

 evidently brooding, and the male bird was feeding her. The tree 

 was too badly decayed to permit climbing, but the identification of 

 the bird was beyond question, inasmuch as Mr. Greenleaf is an ex- 

 perienced bird observer, and the birds were watched carefully from 

 a short distance. There were no conifers within 300 yards of the 

 nest. Mr. Greenleaf notified the writer of his find on March 30 

 and plans were made to visit the nest, and if possible, to obtain 

 some photographs of it within the next few days. 



But on April 3 an unseasonable blizzard raged over eastern 

 Nebraska, and it was evident that the trip would need to be post- 

 poned. Messrs. Greenleaf and Marsh, however, revisited the nest 

 on Easter Sunday, April 4, and found the storm had wrecked 

 the nest, leaving about half of it clinging in the crotch of the tree. 

 As several inches of snow lay on the ground beneath the tree the 

 fragments of any eggs that might have been in the nest could not 

 be found, nor were they to be found later, after the snow had 

 melted. The birds were still in the vicinity after the storm, and 

 especially around the place where the nest had been, but no re- 

 building of the nest was subsequently observed. 



The disappointment of not having secured any tangible evi- 

 dence of this nesting, which was the first record of the breeding 

 of this bird in Nebraska, had scarcely subsided until information 

 was received (on April 26) concerning another nesting, this time 

 in a park in the little city of Broken Bow, Custer county, in the 

 central portion of the state and near the eastern edge of the sand- 

 hills. This nest was found by a fourteen-year-old boy, Newell F. 

 Joyner, and his mother, on March 20. This boy is a Boy Scout and 

 keeps a record of the birds of his locality, so he is positive of the 

 date. The nest was in a very open and exposed place in the park, 

 in the crotch of au elm tree, about ten feet above the ground and 

 directly above a side-walk. There are very few conifer trees in 

 Broken Bow. The nest was not disturbed, and the female was ob- 



