520 AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



and sometimes vellciwish. Nestlings, whitish, heavily streaked above and below with dark brown, with a 

 trace of greenish on the rump and back. When the bird is in the nest the bill is straight, but gradually 

 acquires the curved cross at the tip, sometimes the lower mandible crossing to the right and sometimes to 

 the left of the upper. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Readily known from others of the Family by the crossed bill, and from the White- winged Crossbill by 

 the plain unmarked wing. 



Occurs throughout North America, but chiefly far northward and east of the Great Plains, breeding 

 occasionally on the coast as far south as Maryland and Virginia, and along the mountain regions to Georgia, 

 Tennessee and Kentucky. In winter, migrating southward. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length, 5.90 to 6.10 ; stretch, 10.00 to 10..jO; wing, 3 ."iO to 3.75 ; tail, 2.40 to 2.55 ; bill, .7(5 to .78 ; 

 tarsus, .65 to .70. 



DESCRIPTION OF NFSTS AND EGGS. 



Nests, placed in trees, composed of twigs and stripes of bark, lined with moss. EoG.-^, four or five in 

 number, pale bluish or greenish white in color, sparingly spotted and scrawled with lines of dark brown and 

 lilac. Dimensions, .52 by .73 to .56 by .75. 



HABITS. 



The Red Crossljills are, in every sense of the term, a nomadic species; true Bedouins 

 among birds ; a race without a fixed home. As a species their breeding range is wide, and the 

 same is true of them individually. They usually nest in 

 communities, but scarcely ever twice in the same locality. „, ''^'^~''~~ 



Their time of laying is also variable. They have been ""^ 



known to nest from February until August, as the following '- --"^j; " \ 



instances, among others now on record, show. Mr. G. A. 

 Boardman found them breeding in February in Maine. 

 Mr. Eugene P. Bickwell found a nest containing three 

 eggs at Riverside, New York city, on April 30, 1875. I 

 have a specimen of a bird still in the first plumage which 



was taken by Mr. G. S. Miller, Jr., at Peterboro, N. Y., Fig. 57. Adult Male American 



July 31, 1885. showing that the egg from which this bird 

 was hatched must have been laid some time in May. Late 



in August, 1862, I obtained birds in the first plumage at Newtonville, Mass. The eggs 

 from which these birds were hatched must have been deposited in June. Mr. Will 

 Perham obtained nests from a colony Avhich suddenly aj^peared and nested in a grove 

 near his place in Tyngsboro, Mass., late in August, about 1875. 



The chief food of the Red Crossbill in winter is the seeds of coniferous trees, and the 

 abundance or scarcity of this food governs the movements of the species, thus they can 

 scarcely be said to be truly migrating, for they do not pass north and south with any 

 regularity. 



The winter note of the Crossbill is loud, clear and quite characteristic. The song 

 which appears to be uttered just before the breeding season, and which I have heard in 





