32 



THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



braska," and also tiguretl the "■ PhylHles 

 Cretacees du Nebraska,'''' collecied by Marcou 

 and Capellini. Sir Cliarles Bunbury confined 

 his labors mainly to other lands, yet he elabor- 

 ated the material col ected in America by Lyell 

 and Dawson. 



Leo Lesquereux, who like Agassiz and Guyot, 

 abandoned his native Switzerland for America, 

 has studied the Carboniferous, Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary floras over wide areas in the United 

 States and has probably done more than any 

 other one man to diffuse a knowledge of the 

 vegetation of former epochs. 



Dr. John Strong Newberry, of the School of 

 Mines, Columbia College, N, Y. began his 

 scientific career as a member of the Ives Ex- 

 ploring Expedition, and at once gained a repu- 

 tation as a Paleontologist. He is the author of 

 many excellent works on the extinct floras of 

 North America, several of which have been 

 published by the U. S. Geogical Survey. 



This hurried sketch is merely a brief and 

 imperfect outline of the progress of the know- 

 ledge of fossil plants, as it emerged from mys- 

 ticism and rose to the great science of Paleo- 

 botany. The writer has sought merely to show 

 the various stages in the growth of the science, 

 and has not tried to mention the names of all 

 the great workers in this field, and of course 

 his not touched upon the labors of the host of 

 great investigators of to-day. 



ANGUS GAINES. 



IMPORTED AND ACCLIMATED GER- 

 MAN SONG BIRDS IN OREGON. 



ByC. Y . Pfluger, Sec'y of the Society of the 

 Introduction of useful song-birds into Oregon, 

 at Portland. 

 THE CROSSBILL {Loxia Pyliopsittacus. 

 Det Kreuzschnabfl. ) 



Of these song birds 20 pairs were introduced 

 into Oregon by the Society in 1889. 



This remarkable bird, which is about the 

 size of a Bullfinch is about 6^ inche in length, 

 of which the tail measures 2 5^ inches. The 



beak is almost one inch long, blackish, very 

 thick and bent crosswise at the point the up- 

 per mandible bending downwards, and the 

 lower mandible upwards, cro.ss each other; 

 hence arises the name of the bird. The 

 general hue of most males, is vermillion mixed 

 with brown, and varying in shade on different 

 parts of the body. The neck, breast and rump, 

 are a purer red, the wing and tail feathers dark 

 grey, with black shafts. This bird also like 

 some others, appears to vary in colour accord- 

 ing to lis age. The female is dark grey, tinged 

 on the back with olive green; the rumji is a 

 lighter green; the belly and vent, whitish. 



This bird is a native of Geimany. It 

 frequents fir and pine woods. If not seen in 

 summer, the traces which they leave behind 

 them in winter, in the fir and pine cones lying 

 stripped of their seed beneath the trees, are 

 unmistakeable. They sit very still, and eat 

 nearly the whole day, and only when hopping 

 from tree to tree do they utter a harsh call, 

 "Gej\ gep, gep!" They are generallj seen in 

 j^anies of from twelve to twenty-four. They 

 are not at all shy, nor will a flock of them 

 disper.se even if lired at. 



Its food, chiefly consists of fir seeds, which 

 it partly extracts from the scales of the cones 

 with its bill, and partly collect from the ground. 

 It also eats the seeds of the pine and alder. 



Its time of incubation is the most remark- 

 able of its peculiarities, for it breeds between 

 December and April. It builds its nest in the 

 upper branches of coniferous trees, of thin pine 

 or fir twigs, on which is placed a thick layer 

 of earth moss, lined within with the finest 

 coral moss. The female lays three to five 

 greyish white eggs, having at the thick end a 

 circle of reddish brown stripes and spots. The 

 heating nature of their food preserves both old 

 and young from the effects of the winter's cold. 

 They feed their young with food disgorged 

 from their own crops. The Crossbill uses its 

 bill and feet for purposes of locomotion, like 

 the Parrot. The males often utter the ringing 

 note like "Reitz," or "Kreitz," called by 

 amateurs the Crossbill's crow; they are very 



