BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 297 



I suppose these were young birds, probably attended by the 

 relative proportion of adult parents. It would seem from 

 reliable testimony that the period of incubation in different 

 localities extends from January into June, which is certainly 

 very remarkable for a species reputed to rear but one brood in 

 the year. 



As I have never seen the nest of the Red Crossbill, I shall 

 permit myself to reproduce from Mr. Langille's work a quota- 

 tion from the description of one by Mr. E. P. Bicknell, found at 

 Rimdel, N. Y. 



' 'The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty 

 foliage, about 18 feet from the ground, and was without any 

 single main support, being built in a mass of small, tangled 

 twigs from which it was with difficulty detached. The situa- 

 tion could scarcely have been more conspicuous, being close to 

 the intersection of several roads, in plain sight of as many 

 residences, and constantly exposed to the view of passers-by. 

 The materials of its composition were of rather a miscellaneous 

 character, becoming finer and more select from without inwards. 

 An exterior of bristling spruce twigs, loosely arranged, sur- 

 rounded a mass of matted shreds of cedar bark which formed 

 the principal body of the structure; a few strips of the same 

 appearing around the upper border; the whole succeeded on the 

 inside by a sort of felting of finer material, which received the 

 scanty lining of horse hair, fine rootlets, grass, straws, pieces of 

 string and two or three feathers. The shallow felting of the inner 

 nest can apparently be removed intact from the body of the 

 structure, which, besides the above mentioned materials, con- 

 tains small pieces of moss, leaves, grass, strings, cotton 

 substances and the green foliage of cedar. The nest measured 

 internally two and a half inches in diameter by one and a 

 quarter in depth, being in diameter externally about four 

 inches and rather shallow in appearance." 



The eggs are four to five in number varying in size, pale 

 greenish variously marked in dots and blotches, with different 

 shades of lilac and purplish-brown. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Male dull red, darkest across the back; wings and tail dark, 

 blackish-brown; female dull greenish-olive above, each feather 

 with a dusky centre; rump and crown bright greenish-yellow; 

 beneath grayish; tinged, especially on the sides of the body 

 with greenish-yellow; young, entirely brown; paler beneath. 



Length (male), about 6 inches; wing, 3.30; tail, 2.25. 



Habitat, North America generally. 



