THE AMERICAN CROSSBILL. _ 73 
WHEN a bird’s pastures are the tree-tops it is possible for it to live 
a quite secluded life here in Washington. And, indeed, we know the Cross- 
bill chiefly as a wandering voice or, rather, a vocal babel, passing from summit 
to summit in the grim fir forest. But on a rare day, it may be in Spokane, 
or it may be in Tacoma, the birds descend to human levels and are discovered 
feeding busily on their favorite pine cones. The birds are perfectly in- 
different to equilibrium, and feed any side up without care. While thus 
engaged they may exhibit little fear of the beholder and sometimes venture 
within reach; but as often, for some whimsical reason they are up and away 
again as tho seized by evil spirits. 
The Crossbill owes its peculiar mandibles to an age-long hankering for 
pine-seeds (using that word in the generic sense), a desire fully satisfied 
according to the fashion of that Providence which works so variously thru 
Nature, and whose method we are pleased to call evolution. ‘The bill of the 
bird was not meant for an organ of prehension, and Buffon, the Deist, once 
won a cheap applause by railing at the Almighty for a supposed oversight in 
this direction; but as matter of fact, its wonderful crossed mandibles enable 
the Crossbill to do what no other bird can; viz., pry and cut open the scales 
of a fir cone, in order to extract the tiny seed with its tongue. 
These birds are not entirely confined to a vegetable diet, for I once 
detected a group of them feeding industriously in a small elm tree which 
was infested with little gray insects, plant-lice or something of the sort. The 
presence of these insects, in colonies, caused the edges of the leaves to shrivel 
and curl tightly backward into a protective roll. Close attention showed that 
the Crossbills were feeding exclusively upon these aphides. ‘They first slit 
open a leaf-roll with their scissor-bills, then extracted the insects with their 
tongues, taking care apparently to secure most of the members of each colony 
before passing to the next. 
Crossbills also feed to some extent upon the ground, where they pick 
up fallen seeds and other tidbits. Mr. J. F. Galbraith, a ranger of the Wash- 
ington Forest Reserve, first called my attention to another purpose which 
the birds have in visiting the ground. He had noticed how at certain places, 
and notably where dish-water was habitually thrown, the Crossbills were 
wont to congregate, and, turning the head sidewise, to thrust out the tongue 
along the bare ground in a most puzzling manner. Suspecting at last the 
real state of affairs, he sprinkled the ground with salt, and upon their return 
the birds licked it up with great avidity. Mr. Galbraith claims to have tried 
this experiment successfully upon numerous occasions. The birds do not 
appear to recognize the salt at first sight, but soon learn to resort to estab- 
lished salt-licks in open places. Rev. Fred M. McCreary also reports similar 
habits in connection with certain mineral springs in the Suiattle country. 
