486 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



upper edge of the ear-coverts, the other along the lower edge. The lining 

 of the wing is without any red tinge, seen in all specimens of the true 

 ainericana and mexicana ; the wings and tail are pure sepia-brown, quite dif- 

 ferent from the others ; and the feathers show no red margins. The lower 

 mandible is very much curved. (May not this be like some Siberian style ?) 



No 21,868, from Washington Territory, has the bill nearly as slender as in 

 C. leucoptcra, but there is nothing else peculiar. 



Habits. The common Eed Crossbill of America is a bird of very irreg- 

 ular distribution, abundant in some places at certain seasons, and again rarely 

 seen for several years. It is a Northern species, found in summer chiefly 

 in the more northern portions of the United States, and also found through- 

 out the year in the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to 

 Georgia. A closely allied variety is also found in tlie alpine regions of Vera 

 Cruz and other departments of Mexico. 



Dr. Suckley found this species quite abundant at Puget Sound, in certain 

 seasons. This was especially so in the spring of 1854, though afterwards he 

 met with but few. He noticed a pair on the ground near a pool of rain-water. 

 They were very tame, and allo\A'ed a near approach. Dr. Cooper found it very 

 abundant near the coast, where it feeds, in winter, on the seeds of the black 

 spruce, retiring in summer to the mountains to breed, but returning in Sep- 

 tember. He never observed any in the fir forests of the Coast Eange. In 

 the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, Dr. Cooper found these birds in considerable 

 numbers, September, 1863, and in winter they have been obtained about San 

 Francisco. They seem to be most attracted to the forests of spruces, cypresses, 

 and red-woods, the cones of which are most readily broken. They occasion- 

 ally descend to the ground, in the Ptocky Mountains, in search of the seeds 

 of small plants, and also for water. 



Mr. Bischoff obtained specimens of this species at Sitka, but it was not 

 noticed in the territory of the Yukon Eiver by Mr. Dall, or any of his party, 

 and it was met with by Mr. Eidgway on the East Humboldt Mountains only. 

 There tliey were occasionally seen among the willows and small aspens bor- 

 dering the streams. Their common note was a fine and frequently repeated 

 chick-chick-chick, very different from the plaintive notes of the C. leucojjtcra. 



In New England they are of somewhat irregular occurrence, though in 

 Maine and in the northern portions of Vermont and New Hampshire ^hey 

 are more or less resident. In Eastern Massachusetts they are comparatively 

 rare, excepting that, at irregular intervals, they come in large flocks during 

 the winter. This was so to a remarkable degree in the winter of 1832, and 

 more recently in 1862, when, Mr. Maynard states, they remained until April. 

 They were then in their summer plumage, and also in full song. In August, 

 1868, they again became quite numerous, and had just before appeared in 

 large numbers in Western Maine, doing great damage to the oats, and disap- 

 pearing as soon as these had been harvested. Mr. Maynard thinks that these 

 birds were the same with those afterwards so numerous in Massachusetts. 



