486 NOKTII A.MEUICAX UIRDS. 



ui)])er edge of tlie ear-covi'rts, tlie otlna- ivl()ii>j; tlio lower eilj^'o. Tin; lining 

 of the wing is witiiout iiny roil tinge, seen in iiU specimens ul' tlie true 

 aiiuricKiia anil mi.'u-diui ; tlie wings and tail are pnre sepia-brown, (juite dif- 

 ferent from tlie others; and the feathers show no red margins. The lower 

 niandilile is very niiieh curved. (AFay not this be like some Siberian style Q 



No 21,8()8, from Wasiiington Territory, lias the bill ueai'ly as slender as in 

 C. lciin)/)hnt, lint there is nothing else peculiar. 



llAlilTS. The common IJed Crossbill of America is a bird of very irreg- 

 ular distriliution,al)undaiit in .some places at certain sea.S(ms, and again rarely 

 seen for several years. It is a Northern species, found in summer chieily 

 in the more northern jiortions of the United States, and also found through- 

 out tiie year in the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, ^laryhind, and Virginia, to 

 Georgia. A closely allied variety is also found in the alpine regions of Vera 

 Cruz and other departments of Mexico. 



Dr. Suckley found this species (piite abundant at Puget Sound, in cei'tain 

 seasons. Tiiis was especially so in the spring of IHoi, tiiough afterwards he 

 met with but few. He noticed a pair on the ground near a pool of rain-water. 

 Tho.y were very tame, and allowed a near approacii. Dr. Cooper found it \ery 

 abundant near the coast, where it feeds, in winter, on the seeds of the black 

 spruce, retiring in summer to the mountains to breed, but returning in Sep- 

 temlier. He never oliserved any in the fir forests of the Coast liaiige. In 

 the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, Dr. Cooper found these birds in considerable 

 numbers, September, 1803, and in winter they have been obtained about San 

 Francisco. They seem to be most attracted to the forests of spruces, cyjiresses, 

 and red-woods, the cones of which are most readily broken. They occasion- 

 ally descend to the ground, in the liocky Mountains, in search of the seeds 

 of small ])lants, and also for water. 



Mr. DLscholf obtained specimens of this species at Sitka, but it was not 

 noticed in the territory of the Yukon IJiver by Mv. Dall, or any of his party, 

 and it was met with by Mr. Itidgway on the East Humboldt Mountains only. 

 There they were occasionally seen among the willows and small as})eiis bor- 

 dering the streams. Their common note was a fine and fretjuently repeated 

 chick-chii'k-chick, very different from the plaintive n(jtes of the C. Icucoptera. 



In New England they are of somewluat irregular occurrence, though in 

 Maine and in the northern portions of Vermont and New Hani|)siiire they 

 are more or less resident. In Eastern Massachusetts they are comparatively 

 rare, excepting that, at irregular intervals, they come in large Hocks during 

 tlie winter. This was so to a remarkalile degree in the winter of 1832, and 

 more recently in 18G2, when, Mr. Maynard states, they remained until April. 

 They were then in their summer plumage, and also in full song. In August, 

 18G8, tiiey again became (juite numerous, and had just before appeared in 

 large numbers in Western Maine, doing great damage to the oats, and disap- 

 pearing as soon as tiiese had been harvested. Mr. ^laynard thinks tliat tliese 

 birds were the same witli those afterwards so numerous in Massachusetts. 



