380 SINGING BIRDS. 



White-winged species, a flock of the same birds made their 

 appearance as early as the nth of November in some tall 

 pine-trees in the same place they visited the last year in the 

 depth of winter. They are very busy and unsuspicious, having 

 very much the manners of Parrots in their feeding. At some 

 distance beneath the trees where they are engaged, we can 

 hear them forcing open the scales of the rigid pine cones with 

 a considerable crackling, and the wings of the seeds fly about 

 in all directions. Sometimes the little Redpolls also attend to 

 snatch a seed or two as they are spread to the winds. They 

 fly somewhat like the Yellow Birds, by repeated jerks and sink- 

 ings and risings in their course, but proceed more swiftly and 

 directly to their destination ; they also utter a rather loud and 

 almost barking or fifing chirp, particularly the females, like 

 'tsh 'tship 'tsh 'tship. Their enemies seem also to follow them 

 into this distant and unusual retreat. One evening, as they 

 were uttering their quailing chirp, and about to roost in the 

 pines, we heard an unusual cry, and found that the alarm was 

 justly occasioned by the insidious and daring attack of a bold 

 Butcher Bird {Lanius bo7'ealis), who had taken advantage of 

 their bewildered confusion at the moment of retiring to repose. 

 Besides their call and ordinary plaints, we hear, as I have 

 thought, now and then, in the warmer part of the day, a rather 

 agreeable, but somewhat monotonous, song. We found these 

 birds, as well as the Redpolls, very fat and plump ; and they 

 devour a great quantity of pine-seeds, with which the oesopha- 

 gus is perpetually gorged as fufl as in the gluttonous and tune- 

 less Cedar Birds (^Bombycilld). 



The Red Crossbill is still known to be chiefly a winter visitor to 

 New England and the Middle States, though every summer a 

 small number may be met with in the more northern districts and 

 on the higher hills, and nests have been taken in Maine, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, and New York. In April, 1S89, Mr. G. S. Miller, 

 Jr., found a flock on Cape Cod, and upon dissecting several, he dis- 

 covered evidence that they were nesting. 



In northern Maine and New Brunswick numbers have been 

 seen during the summer months ; but even in these regions it is 

 chiefly a winter visitor. 



