FAMILY Pringillidsp. 



ngland and in northern arid western Massachusetts 

 have been large and the movement has been widespread." 



This Pine Grosbeak is neatly as large as the Robin, and 

 his coloring is far more beautiful; the crown, back of the 

 neck and breast strongly overlaid with rose madder or rose 

 lake, the under color light slate gray, under parts entirely 

 a lighter gray, wings and tail sepia, the wings with two 

 nearly white bars and whitish edgings on the longer feath- 

 ers, the back and rump marked with rose red and sepia; 

 some individuals are far more roseate than others. Nc.-t . 

 in coniferous trees, a few feet from the ground, built of 

 twigs and rootlets, lined with softer materials. Egg, light 

 green-blue flecked with lavender and umber brown. The 

 range of this species is distinctly within the Hudsonian 

 zone and extends from Alaska through the coniferous for- 

 ests to northern Maine; southward from Canada it is only 

 a winter visitant. It feeds largely upon the berries of the 

 mountain ash (Pyrus sitchensis in particular), and the seeds 

 of sumac, wild apple, hawthorn, and the coniferous trees. 



The Pine Grosbeak possesses, like his congener the Pur- 

 ple Finch, a prolonged, melodious warble; the song is not 

 unlike that of Rose-breasted Grosbeak without the burring 

 quality and with many clear whistled notes like those of 

 the Cardinal. I have no record of the song, but the high- 

 whistled call note, similar to that of the so-called Yellow- 

 leg of the sea-shore marshes, is distinctly musical: 



'Twice 8vd. 





Red Crossbill This lied, or American, Crossbill is a 

 Loxia curvi- boreal species which is not uncommonly a 



rostra minor ., , ,, ... 



L. 6.25 inches permanent resident of the coniferous forests 

 December ist in the extreme northern parts of New Eng- 

 to April isth i an d and New York. The points of the up- 

 per and lower mandibles are twisted one over the other, and 

 are consequently remarkably adapted for the extraction of 

 seed from the cones of the evergreens. This case of special 

 adaptation is an extreme .instance of utility versus a'sthct- 



278 



