1-^8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



Cambridge boys, Lovell Tbompson and Charles F. Walcott. These boys on their 

 visit to Marblehead in the winter of 1916-17 had seen a flock of Red Crossbills, 

 and on April 22, 1917, they noticed two in pitch pines near a house. " ' Looking 

 closer we found their nest on a pine branch about eighteen feet above the ground. 

 The male Crossbill flew from the tree but when I [Thompson] climbed it the 

 female was on the nest and I got my hand within two feet of her before she left 

 it to fly away. There were two eggs in it, both whitish with some dark markings. 

 About a month later we visited the place again. There was then nothing to be 

 seen of the Crossbills and only one broken egg-shell remained in the nest which 

 we took and have since given to Mr. Brewster.' " Mr. Brwster says: " The nest 

 above mentioned somewhat resembles that of a Song Sparrow, being similarly 

 bulky and deep-cupped, with thick walls mostly composed of bleached grass- 

 blades and weed stalks. But it has also a bristling outer fringe of stiiT twigs six 

 to ten inches long, such as no Song Sparrow would be likely to employ. Moreover 

 its nest lining of fine, soft grasses includes a few Crossbill feathers at least one of 

 which, brick red in color, must have come from an adult male Ijird. Their pres- 

 ence affords, of course, convincing evidence as to the original ownership of the 

 nest, thereby, indeed, it is ' self -identified.' " 



The song of this bird which I have heard in the month of April in Ipswich, 

 is a pleasant, rather rambling warble suggestive at times by its repetitions of the 

 song of the Brown Thrasher. 



One may often discover these birds among pines by the noise made by their 

 bills in picking the seeds from the cones. They often hang by the feet, head 

 downward, extract the seed from between the rough scales, swallow the seed, and 

 let the light wing blow away. The pitch-pine thickets in the Ipswich dunes are 

 favorite resorts of Crossbills. 



216 [522] Loxia leucoptera Gmel. 

 White-winged Crossbill. 

 Irregular but at times common winter visitor. October 24 to April. 



In 1906, I had observed a failure in the cone-crop of the spruces and firs in 

 Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and Labrador and inferred that there would be 

 an incursion of Crossbills and Grosbeaks into New England in the following 

 winter. My inference was justified. On October 24, 1906, I heard from a flock 

 of these birds at Wenham parts of the beautiful courtship song that I have heard 

 on their breeding-grounds. The song here is delivered with great vigor and 

 abandon and usually as the bird flies in large circles.^ 



1 Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 23, p. 177, 1906. 



