3IO DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



of 3'ears and then reappear in large flocks. Ke^'es and Williams 

 state that "at Charles City, during the spring of 1S78, it appeared 

 in large numbers, remaining until the first week in May. In July 

 of the same year a flock was also noted in Floyd county" (Birds 

 of Iowa, p. 141). W. W. Cooke (Bird Migr. in Miss. Val. in 

 1884-85, p. 141) says that "not a single record was made during 

 the winter of 1883-84 . . . The winter of 1884-85 was marked 

 ornithologically, in the upper Mississippi Valley, by the great 

 abundance of Crossbills of both species. In Iowa they stayed all 

 winter at Coralville and were .seen April 18 at Knoxville (fifty 

 birds), and Ma)^ i in Grinnell. The latest records are Coralville, 

 May 21," etc. 



While the mandibles of the Crossbill are so constructed as to 

 be most useful in shelling the seeds from pine cones, the birds are 

 not confined to evergreen groves in Iowa, but feed commonly on 

 sunflower and hemp seeds and the seeds of various weeds. While 

 the species has been recorded from nearly all portions of the state 

 it occurs more regularly in the northern parts of Iowa and is rare 

 in the southern counties. The majority of the records are in the 

 months from October to February. 



228. (552) Loxia leiuoptera (Gmel.). White-winged Crossbill. 



This species usually appears with flocks of American Cross- 

 bills, but is much rarer. Keyes and Williams state that it is usu- 

 ally only noticed in midwinter. 



County records: Blackhawk — "one shot by myself early in 

 fall, four or five years ago — only one ever observed here" (Salis- 

 bury). Hardin — "fall of 1900 at Iowa Falls" (Halvorsen). John- 

 son — "a flock summered near Iowa City in 1885" (J. T. Paintin), 

 (Nutting, Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 1892, p. 41). Linn — "shot one 

 in town in winter of 1893, the only one I ever saw here (Cedar 

 Rapids). It was with about twenty Common Crossbills" (Berry). 

 Pottawattamie -Mills — "irregular winter visitant" (Trostler). 

 Pow^eshiek — ' 'rare winter visitant' ' (Lynds Jones). Story — ' 'rare 

 at Ames" (Osborn, Cat. Col. Iowa Agri. Coll., 1891, p. 8). Van 

 Buren — "ten years ago one was shot and brought to me for iden- 

 tification" (W. G. Savage); "one specimen with flock of Ameri- 

 can Crossbills in 1881" (Wm. Savage, lowaOrn., i, i, 1894, p. 2). 

 Woodbury — "uncommon winter resident" (Rich). 



