THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 223 



521 Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm). 

 Red Crossbill. 



PLATE 54. 



Adult male. Length, 5.50-6.25. Wing, 3.50. General color, dull brick red, 

 brightest on the rump ; head and breast, wings and tail, blackish. 



Adult female. Grayish-olive instead of red, becoming bright yellow-olive on 

 the rump. 



Young male in first autumn and first breeding season. Variously mottled 

 olive, yellow and red. 



Young in first summer. Olive-gray above, whitish below, streaked every- 

 where with dusky olive. 



Irregular visitant, usually in winter. 



The Crossbills visit us always in flocks,, and are particularly partial 

 to evergreens, prying apart the scales of the cones and scooping out 

 the seed and such insects as may lurk there. Their peculiar crossed 

 mandibles and their habit of climbing about reminds one not a little 

 of diminutive Parrots. 



In midwinter, flocks often visit the evergreens about our houses, 

 being plentiful one year and absent the next. In the pine barrens, too, 

 they are found frequently. 



The Crossbill has never been found breeding in New Jersey, al- 

 though Mr. E. P. Bicknell 1 discovered a nest, with eggs, at Riverdale, 

 New York, April 30th, 1875, but a short distance beyond the State 

 boundary. The birds have, however, occurred a number of times in 

 summer. John Krider 2 states that he has taken them at Red Bank, 

 on the Delaware, in June. W. B. Evans 3 saw them May 6th ? 1900, 

 at Hanover; Dr. W. E. Hughes, 3 at Forked River, June 6th, 1900; 

 George E. Hix, 4 in northern Somerset county, July 19th, 1903, and 

 S. N. Rhoads, at Wawayanda Lake, June 5th, 1909. 



1 Amer. Nat., 1876, p. 237 ; B. N. O. C., 1880, p. 7. 



2 Field Notes, p. 44. 



3 Abst. Proc. D. V. O. C., IV., p. 6. 



4 Bird Lore, 1903, p. 166. 



