CROSSBILLS 379 



nest at all, as for example the flock I studied on the University of 

 Maine Campus. That authentic instances have been recorded 

 of their nests being found in February and March is undoubted. 

 Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell found a nest containing three eggs in 

 the lower Hudson Valley on April 30. The nest was placed 

 in a cedar tree eighteen feet from the ground, supported on a 

 mass of small tangled twigs. The foundation was spruce twigs, 

 the nest proper of matted shreds of cedar bark, felted by finer 

 material and lined with horsehair, fine rootlets, grass stems, 

 pieces of string and two or three feathers. These eggs measure 

 0.74 X 0.56, 0.75 x 0.58, 0.78 x 0.59. Their color was pale 

 greenish, spotted and dotted about the larger end with various 

 shades of brown and lavender. (B. N. O. C. 5, pp. 7-11.) 



A nest is recorded as being built under a tank which supplied 

 a camp with water at Forked Lake, New York. It was com- 

 posed of a few twigs, a thick layer of cedar and hemlock bark, 

 lined with plant down. As the nest interfered with the indicator 

 of the water tank it was torn down before any eggs were laid, 

 on June 5. (Kennard Auk 12, 304.) Mr. C. H. Morrell found 

 them paired in March in Nova Scotia and the males in full song. 



In Maine I have seen the parent birds with young not long 

 out of the nest in March, April, May, June, July and August 

 in various sections of the State, and in Penobscot County thus 

 in every one of these months but June. At such times they 

 are generally in family groups of six, occasionally only five, 

 consisting of the two parent birds and the immature ones. In 

 many cases my judgment of the immaturity of the young was 

 based on slight traces of down adhering to their plumage as 

 well as seeing them clamor for food which was supplied by the 

 parents, both male and female feeding the young with a peck- 

 ing, spitting motion of the bill, forcing the food into their 

 opened mouths. The bills also of the young did not show any 

 appreciable indication of being crossed in these instances. It 

 would seem, judging by the young seen in a group, that four 

 eggs was the usual number laid. 



