BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 229 



ing- chiefly pine and hemlock trees, on the seeds of which they mainly 

 subsist. They also visit log cabins and other buildings about the 

 forests, and pick at the mud used to fill up the chinks between the logs, 

 etc. The nest of this bird is said to be built usually in a coniferous 

 tree and composed of twigs, strips and fibers of bark, hair, small roots, 

 grasses, etc.; "eggs, three to four, .75 by .57, pale-greenish, spotted and 

 dotted about larger end with dark, purplish-brown, with lavender shell- 

 markings." Coues. 



Loxia leucoptera GMEL. 



White-winged Crossbill. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 93). 



Size about same as American Crossbill. 



Male. General color rosy-red ; scapulars, wings and tail black. 



Female. General color greenish-olive, breast yellowish ; wings and tail dusky- 

 brown. The young, very similar to female, are streaked with dusky, and all have 

 tips of middle and greater coverts white, forming two showy white wing bands, 

 which in any plumage, and their peculiar sickle-like bills, will enable you to dis- 

 tinguish them from other of the Fringillidce. 



Habitat. Northern parts of North America, south into the United States in 

 winter. Breeds from northern New England northward. 



The White-winged Crossbill from all the information I can obtain 

 does not build in Pennsylvania where it occurs only as a winter visitor. 

 This species is found in the same localities as the American Crossbill, 

 but, unlike the last-mentioned bird, it appears to be much less common 

 and more irregular in its visits. In the winter of 1889-90 White-winged 

 Crossbills were very common in Wyoming, Lackawanna and Susque- 

 hanna counties. Crossbills are nearly always to be found in flocks. 

 The food of this species is similar to that of the American Crossbill. 



GENUS ACANTHIS BECHSTEIN. 

 Acanthis linaria ( LINN. ) . 



Redpoll ; Little Snow-bird. 



DESCRIPTION. 



The small and very acute bill is yellow, a dusky streak extends backward from 

 point of each mandible ; legs, feet, claws and iris 'dark ; tail deeply forked. 



Adult male. Above brownish-yellow, each feather streaked with dark-brown and 

 margined with grayish ; tail and wings dusky edged with whitish ; two white wing 

 bars ; a narrow frontal space, throat patch and lores dull black (feathers of frontal 

 region somewhat whitish). Top of head red ; breast and sides more or less colored 

 with red ; rump and upper tail-coverts streaked with white and dusky, and in some 

 specimens tinged with pinkish ; lower parts generally white but sides and under 

 tail-coverts have dusky streaks. 



Female. Very similar to male, but breast is usually of a yellowish tint and not 



