BIRDS OF KANSAS. 417 



buds and blossoms, and for this injurious habit are much dreaded 

 by fruit growers. Were it not for this, their gentle ways and 

 rich musical, warbling song would insure them a hearty welcome. 

 As they are quite constant singers and easily tamed, they are 

 much sought after for cage birds. 



They usually move about in small flocks, flying in a rather 

 compact form and with an undulating motion, as they go from 

 tree to tree in search of food, where at the ends of the slender 

 branches they sway about, often hanging head downward, like 

 the Titmice, as they pluck the buds and berries, or seeds from 

 the cones. 



Their nests are usually placed in evergreen trees, sometimes 

 in orchard trees. They are composed of weeds, strippings from 

 plants, rootlets, grasses, etc., and lined with hairs. Eggs usually 

 four or five; they vary greatly in size; dull greenish blue, irreg- 

 ularly specked and spotted chiefly about the larger end with 

 black, umber and lilac, the black markings occasionally in short 

 lines; in form, oval. A set of four eggs, taken May 30th, 1879, at 

 Eastport, Connecticut, from a Norway spruce, and about twelve 

 feet from the ground, are, in dimensions: .70x.53, .74x.54r, 

 .76x.54, .77x54. 



GENUS LOXIA 



"Mandibles much elongated, compressed and attenuated; greatly curved or 

 falcate, the points crossing or overlapping to a greater or less degree. Tarsi 

 very short; claws all very long, the lateral extending beyond the middle of the 

 central; hind claw longer than its digit. Wings very long and pointed, reach- 

 ing beyond the middle of the narrow, forked tail. Colors reddish in the male." 



Loxia curvirostra minor (BREHM.). 



AMERICAN CROSSBILL.. 

 PLATE XXVL 



Irregular winter visitant; rare. 



B. 318. R. 172. C. 199. G. 86, 204. U. 521. 



HABITAT. North America in general, but chiefly far north- 

 ward and east of the Great Plains; breeding sporadically south 

 to Maryland and Virginia, near the coast, and to northern 

 Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, in mountains. (Ridgway.) 



SP. CHAR. "Old male: Dull red (the shade differing in the specimens, some- 

 times brick red, sometimes vermilion, etc.); darkest across the back; wings 



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