8 BiCKNELL on the Nesting of the Red Crossbill. 



severity, during which most of our boreal birds appeared in greater 

 numbers, and extended their range further to the southward than 

 for many winters before. At Riverdale, New York City, Red Crossbills 

 were first observed in 1874 on November 3 (a small flock). They 

 remained apparently but a few days, but reappeared in larger num- 

 bers about a mouth later, and thereafter during the ensuing winter 

 were constantly present in small roving flocks. At one locality, in 

 particular, they were almost always to be found. This was about 

 several private residences overlooking the river, whose grounds, 

 abounding with various species of ornamental evergreens and co- 

 nifers, especially larches and the Norway spruce {Abies excelsa), 

 seemed to offer them especial attractions. Here as the winter waned 

 the birds became none the less common, and in the mild mornings 

 of early spring-time this species, as well as Piiiicola enudcator, would 

 often be found in full song, frequently on the same tree. As I now 

 recall them, the song of the Grosbeak was a subdued rambling war- 

 ble, interrupted with whistling notes ; that of the Crossbill bolder 

 and more pronounced as a song. During the third week in April a 

 male was daily heard singing about the same spot, and on the 22d, 

 in following up his notes, I came upon the female busily at work 

 upon a nest. Several times I watched it arrange a burden of build- 

 ing materials, gathered from the gi'ound but a few yards distant, in 

 the almost completed structure, which on another visit a few days 

 later appeared to be finished, but was empty. On the 30th, how- 

 ever, it contained three eggs. On shaking the tree the female 

 fluttered from the nest, and while I was ascending both birds flew 

 about me with notes of distress and alarm, the female approaching 

 within a foot when the nest was reached, though her mate exercised 

 a greater degree of caution. Notwithstanding all this demonstration, 

 however, the male bird (unquestionably of this pair) was observed 

 near the nest a short time afterward in full song. 



The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty foliage, 

 about eighteen 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 situation could scarcely 

 have been more conspicuous, being close to the intersection of 

 several roads (all of them more or less bordered with ornamental 

 evergreens), in plain sight of as many residences, and constantly 

 exposed to the view of passers-by. The materials of its compo- 

 sition were of rather a miscellaneous character, becoming finer 



