Vol -? c j^ I ^l Peabody, Crossbills of Northeastern Wyoming. 271 



THE CROSSBILLS OF NORTHEASTERN WYOMING. 



BY REV. P. B. PEABODY. 



The data set forth herein are much too meager for publication, 

 greatly interesting as are the underlying facts to which they refer. 

 What is here chronicled is hence laid before students of bird biology 

 with suggestive and stimulative intent. It seems incredible that 

 the apparent difficulties in the way of a more intimate knowledge 

 of the nesting conditions that prevail with some of our mid-western 

 races of Red Crossbills should continue to baffle those that have 

 attained skill, through experience, in the unraveling of bird 

 mysteries. 



On the shale hills of Weston County, Wyoming, and on the rocky 

 slopes of the Bear Lodge Hills of Crook County, the ever-present 

 bull-pine shelters or nestles, according to their whim, the nomadic 

 flocks of the large-billed form of crossbills that are known as the 

 Bendire Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra bendirei). This race is no 

 less irregular in its periodic and seasonal movements than are 

 others of its congeners. Except for a brief time in the very late 

 summer, when the seeds of the bull-pine begin to fail, there would 

 seem to be no time during the annual circuit when the Sierra Cross- 

 bill may not be found in northeastern Wyoming. It is rather 

 sparingly resident; and, except for the seasons when it freely breeds, 

 it is irregular in its favored haunts. 



Interested, at all times, in the habits of all birds, the writer has, 

 of late years, given special attention to questions of the breeding 

 times of many species of North American birds. He has collated 

 from printed records and gathered from private sources all eligible 

 records for the nesting times of all the crossbill races. For L. c. 

 minor, the extreme dates available for record are March 10 and 

 August 6. Of late a September instance (Brewster, Maine) has 

 come to light. For L. leucoptera, January 20 and June 12, and 

 for L. c. stricklandi (in Mexico), a period extending back into 

 January (perhaps December), and forward to about March 15. 

 (See 'Zoe,' Vol. IV.) 



By all analogy, the Sierra Crossbill should nest during February 



