THE FINCHES 1575 



in April, and continue to be gregarious until summer comes, when they disperse for 

 the purpose of building their nests. They appear to be somewhat shy and retiring 

 birds, because they do not frequent the roads like the bullfinches, the snow buntings, 

 and the mealy redpolls. But this is by no means the case; they confine themselves 

 principally to the woods where they are not difficult to approach, even when the 

 sportsman is obliged to hunt them in snowshoes, six feet long, to support his 

 weight upon the untrodden surface. In the large pine forests they prefer the banks of 

 the rivers or the outskirts of some open place, and may often escape detection from 

 the habit of frequenting the tops of the trees. Within the Arctic Circle many of 

 the trees are small, and on the hilly ground they are scattered in small clumps, or 

 sometimes in isolated trees, the drooping boughs of the spruce firs looking very 

 graceful on the white snow. In places like these the pine grosbeak may often be 

 seen perched conspicuously on the top of a spruce fir, twenty or thirty feet from the 

 ground, but looking so much like the last spike of the tree as frequently to escape 

 notice. . . . The call note is a plaintive single note, somewhat like that of our 

 bullfinch, but incapable of being expressed on paper. The song is very melodious, 

 not very loud or long, but flute-like. When I first heard it, I took it for the song 

 of some rare Siberian thrush, and was quite disappointed when I shot the bird to 

 find it only a pine grosbeak. The flight is undulating and powerful. We found 

 several nests which could only have belonged to birds of this species, but our search 

 for eggs was unsuccessful. The breeding season is said to be the end of May or 

 beginning of June. The nests are generally placed in a spruce-fir tree ten or twelve 

 feet from the ground, on a thick branch close to the main stem. The nest is made 

 on the same model as that of the hawfinch and bullfinch, but of coarser materials. 

 The outside is a framework of slender fir twigs, and the inside, which projects 

 above the outside, is composed of roots of fine grass, and a lichen which grows 

 upon the branches of the trees, and might easily be mistaken for hair. . . . The 

 number of eggs varies from three to four. . . . The ground color is pale green- 

 ish blue, boldly spotted, principally at the larger end, with surface spots varying 

 from rich brown to almost black, and with underlying spots of grayer brown." The 

 general color of the adult male is rosy crimson, with ashy bases to the feathers; the 

 wings and tail being dusky brown, with the feathers edged with rose color. The 

 female has the general color of the upper parts ashy gray; the crown of the head 

 and sides of the face golden olive yellow, spreading onto the mantle; and the throat 

 and under surface ashy gray, washed with golden olive. 



These are sufficiently distinguished from all other members of the 

 avian class by the crossing of the tips of the two mandibles of the beak. 

 In general conformation the beak is hard, strong, and thick at the base, with the 

 lower mandible curving upward, and its point crossing that of the upper one; a 

 structural conformation enabling these birds to extract with facility the seeds deeply 

 buried beneath the overlapping scales of the fir cones on which they feed. This 

 peculiar structure is, however, developed only in the adult, young birds in the nest 

 having the beak of normal conformation. As regards other characteristics, the 

 crossbills have the wings long and pointed, and the tail forked and relatively short 

 in proportion to the wings. 



