RED CROSSBILL. 
ics; no artist would select such a bill as a model of beauty 
any more than he would use the peasant’s abused foot as 
a modei for his beautiful statue! The color of the bird, 
however, is «esthetic; it is one of those classic hues which 
has been named Pompeian red—a dull-toned vermilion, 
the color brightest on the head, breast, and rump, and 
browner on the back, the wings and tail umber brown 
lightly edged with dull red, the bill a light horn brown. 
Nest of twigs, cedar bark, and rootlets, lined with finer 
materials, horsehair, etc., lodged in coniferous trees perhaps 
fifteen feet above the ground. Egg, a pale dull green 
flecked with madder purple, or lavender. The movements 
of the species are erratic, but the breeding grounds extend 
as far south as the mountains of South Carolina. 
The song of the Red Crossbill is somewhat similar to 
that of the Goldfinch, or, in respect of the ‘‘reaching”’ 
tones, like that of the Indigo Bunting, but I have been 
able to gather only meagre records during the late winter 
and early spring, which are certainly not representative of 
the complete song. The notes are not as full-toned as 
those of the White-winged Crossbill, and many of them are 
like the simple, pathetic chirps of ‘a lost chicken combined 
with lower toned staccato notes, thus: 
Trice Ova. kee 
Cheep, cheep, cheep. © 
Gerald Thayer’s description of the song as far as words 
go, is excellent: ‘‘A series of somewhat Goldfinchlike trills 
and whistles seldom of any duration and in any case far 
less rich than those of the White-winged Crossbill. It is 
more apt to keep up a low twittering while feeding than 
that species.”’ The notes, it is well to observe, are in the 
very highest octave of the piano. The bird is far from 
uncommon during the fall, winter, and early spring in the 
White Mountain region, but he does not “pipe up”’ as 
often as one would wish. He is a frequent winter visitor 
of Campton, N. H. 
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