484 LAND BIRDS 
Breeding Season: March and April. 
Nest: Of spruce twigs, shreds of soft bark, etc.; lined with horsehair, 
fine rootlets, ete.; rather flat ; placed in coniferous trees. 
Eggs: 3 or 4; pale greenish, spotted and dotted about the larger end 
with shades of brown and lavender. Size 0.75 X 0.57. 
WHEREVER in the Sierra Nevada you find pine cones 
in plenty, look for the Crossbills. From Placer County 
to Mount Whitney they are more or less common dur- 
ing the summer. We use this 
phrase advisedly, for never were 
birds more capricious in the 
choice of feeding and_ nesting 
srounds. If here one season, 
as likely as not next year will 
find them miles away. But because you 
may not have seen them, do not decide 
that they are not near. One hundred 
feet away a flock of twenty to fifty may 
be feasting in the tree tops and not one 
elsewhere. Or you may have them as 
neighbors to-day, and to-morrow find no 
trace of one. In the winter this is even 
more true, for they straggle irregularly 
“ Head down, chick. OVeY the central part of the State even 
opt Seat: as far south as Pasadena. At Mon- 
terey they are irregular summer visitants; and_ since 
they are without established Jaws as to breeding 
range, they may even be found breeding there. The 
nest is placed on the horizontal branch of a coniferous 
tree, usually about twenty feet from the ground, and 
both sexes assist in its construction. From the curi- 
521a. MrxIcan 
CROSSBILL. 
