490 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



and tame than the americana, and in one instance a pair were taken by the 

 hand, and afterwards kept in confinement. They appeared around Boston in 

 large Hocks, and remained tln'ough April. One was shot in Newton by ]\Ir. 

 Maynard, June 13. It was found in an apple-tree, and its crop was full of 

 canker-worms. In Eastern Maine it is resident throughout the year, and, 

 lilvc the other species, breeds in winter. In Western jMaine Professor Verrill 

 has found it a common winter visitant, but it is not known to be resi- 

 dent. 



Near Springfield Mr. Allen considered this species a much less frequent 

 visitor than the preceding. In the winters of 1854 and 1860 he found them 

 very abundant, occurring in large Hocks. 



Mr. Audubon, on his way to Labrador in 1833, found these birds quite 

 common, in May, among the islands of the Bay of Fundy, evidently migrat- 

 ing, on their way to more northern regions. I, however, observed none there 

 during my visits in the summers of 1850 and 1851, although a specimen was 

 afterwards obtained on the Murre Islands, on the 30th of June. 



So far as they are known, the habits of this species are exactly similar to 

 those of the preceding. They feed in the same manner and upon like food. 

 Their flight is undulating and well sustained, and their movements in the 

 trees are not perceptibly different. 



In the spring of 1869, Mr. Jillson, of Hudson, Mass., sent me a pair of 

 these birds which he had captured the preceding autumn. They were very 

 tame, and were exceedingly interesting little pets. Their movements in the 

 cage were like those of caged parrots in every respect, except that they 

 were far more easy and rapid. They clung to the sides and upper wires of 

 the cage with their feet, hung down from them, and seemed to enjoy the 

 practice of walking with tlieir head downward. They were in full song, and 

 both the male and the female were quite good singers. Their songs were 

 irregular and varied, but sweet and musical. Tliey ate almost every kind of 

 food, but were especially eager for slices of raw apples. An occasional larch 

 cone was also a great treat to them. Although while they lived they were 

 continually bickering over their food, yet when the female was accidentally 

 choked by a bit of eggshell her mate was inconsolable, ceased to sing, re- 

 fused his food, and died of grief in a very few days. 



The White-winged Crossliill was seen more frequently by Mr. Ridgway 

 among the East Humboldt Mountains than the other species. It was first 

 noticed on the 12th of August among the cedars on the mountains. Its fine 

 plaintive cry of "week" was entirely different from the hurriedly uttered 

 notes of the C. americana. 



Several specimens of this Crossbill have been taken in Europe, where 

 their occurrence is of course accidental, irregular, and rare. 



A nest of this species (S. I., 13,452), taken at Fredericton, New Brunswick, 

 by Dr. A. Adams, in 1868, is deeply saucer-shaped, and composed of a rather 

 thin wall of fibrous pale-green lichens, encased on the outside with spruce 



