CROSSBILLS 375 



otherwise the nest could not have been located. The five eggs 

 measure 0.82 x 0.60, 0.81 x 0.59, 0.83 x 0.60, 0.80 x 0.60, 

 0.80 X 0.57. Four to six, usually five eggs are laid, these 

 are light blue or slightly greenish blue, spotted about the larger 

 end with dark brown, blackish and fuscous. 



Both male and female assist in building the nest, but I have 

 only once caught the male assisting in the task of incubation, 

 and then he was perched on the eggs half standing and literally 

 bursting with melody. Probably the female would prefer to 

 get along without such aid which might endanger the safety of 

 the eggs if the songster forgot himself too much while express- 

 ing his feelings. The male frequently feeds the female while 

 she is incubating, and when not so engaged is perched on the 

 top of some near by tree singing his best. 



Incubation requires about thirteen days and the young leave 

 in fourteen days more. Both parents feed them for a con- 

 siderable while after they have left the nest. As to the food 

 of the Purple Finch, the species is primarily a seed eater during 

 the winter and spring, eating all sorts of weed and grass seeds, 

 also to a lesser extent a few buds of apple, maple and birch as 

 well as other tree buds. In late spring they eat some insects, 

 such as beetles, green caterpillars and small larvae of various 

 sorts. In summer they are fruit eaters to quite an extent, par- 

 taking of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, both 

 wild and cultivated and many other fruits. They seem to relish 

 the fruit of the dogwoods, elders and viburnums very much. 



Genus LOXIA Linnajus. 



521. Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm). American Cross- 

 bill. 



Plumage of adult male : wings and tail fuscous ; otherwise more or less 

 dull reddish with local brownish tinges, the prevailing color being reddish. 

 Plumage of immature males : wings and tail fuscous ; otherwise all over a 



Foot Note — (Amadina rubronigra, an African Finch, once taken in Maine, is most certainly 

 an escaped cage bird, (Alien, B. N. O. C. 5, p. 120). 



