WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 41 



on tlie borders of Lake Ontario, and descends in autumn and 

 winter into Canada, and the Northern and Middle States. 

 Its migrations, however, are very irregular. They are seldom 

 observed elsewhere than in pine swamps and forests, feeding 

 almost exclusively on the seeds of these trees, together with 

 a few berries. All the specimens I obtained had their crops 

 filled to excess entirely with the small seeds of Pinus inops. 

 They kept in flocks of from twenty to fifty, Avhen alarmed 

 suddenly taking wing all at once, and after a little manoeu- 

 vring in the air, generally alighting again nearly on the same 

 pines whence they had set out, or adorning the naked 

 branches of some distant, high, and insulated tree. In the 

 countries where they pass the summer, they build their nests 

 on the limb of a pine, towards the centre ; it is composed of 

 grasses and earth, and lined internally with feathers. The 

 female lays five eggs, which are white, spotted with yellowish. 

 The young leave the nest in June, and are soon able to join 

 the parent birds in their autumnal migration. In the northern 

 countries, where these birds are very numerous, when a deep 

 snow has covered the ground, they appear to lose all sense 

 of danger, and by spreading some favourite food, may be 

 knocked down with sticks, or even caught by hand while 

 busily engaged in feeding. Their manners are also in other 

 respects very similar to those of the Common Crossbill." 



Dr. Richardson states that this bird " inhabits the dense 

 white spruce forests of the North American fur countries, 

 feeding principally on the seeds of cones. It ranges through 

 the whole breadth of the continent, and probably up to the 

 sixty-eighth parallel, where the woods terminate, though it 

 was not observed by us higher than the sixty-second. It is 

 mostly seen on the upper branches of the trees, and when 

 wounded, clings so fast, that it will remain suspended after 

 death. In September it collects in small flocks, which fly 

 from tree to tree, making a chattering noise ; and in the 



