46 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



that of the American Goldfinch, but coarser. The females were shy, flying- 

 covertly from tree to tree and darling through the foliage to avoid the officious 

 advances of the males, who were following them. The latter flew in broad circles 

 above the females, with slowly beating wings, singing continuously, and finally 

 settling on quivering, outstretched wings to a tree-top. I visited this locality again 

 on the 28th of May, and was fortunate enough to find three nests of the White- 

 winged Crossbill. On this date the large flocks had scattered out, and the birds 

 were mostly seen singly or in pairs. Two or three companies of a dozen or so 

 were noted, these probably being non-breeders or yearlings. The first nest was 

 found b}' spotting a pair of birds and closely watching their movements. They 

 were feeding when first noted, but in a few minutes I suddenly lost sight of the 

 female, although the male remained in the vicinity, frequently uttering the 

 metallic call- note previously described. After waiting some time, I proceeded to 

 the tree where the female was last seen. On vigorously shaking the tree several 

 times she flew out of a dense clump of branches and perclied a few yards off"^ 

 chirping solicitously. Both birds soon left the vicinity and did not return while 

 I remained. The nest was situated close to the trunk, ten feet above the ground, 

 in a mass of foliage so thick as to entirely hide it from view. It contained two 

 eggs about one-third incubated. These are ovate, and measure .86x.6i, .84x60. 

 The ground color is an extremely pale tint of blue. One egg has scattering illy- 

 defined spots and blotches of pale chocolate. The other egg has numerous very 

 pale lavender markings, and, mostly at the larger end, a number of spots and four 

 large blotches of dark seal-brown. The second nest was found through locating a 

 male bird by its call-note, and then tapping every tree in the vicinity with a stick. 

 The female was thus flushed from her nest, which was twelve feet up near the top 

 of a dwarf spruce. It was embedded in a mass of foliage against the stem of the 

 tree, much as in the case of the first nest. It contained two pipped eggs and one 

 newly hatched young. The parents evinced more solicitude in this case, chirping 

 and flying from tree to tree. The third nest was found similarly, though the 

 female left the nest unobserved and I had to wait until she returned to be able to 

 locate the nest. This was fifteen feet from the ground, hidden in the dense spruce 

 top, as before. There was but one fresh egg. This measures .77X.58. It is 

 almost white (before blown, pinkish) with scattering abruptly-defined spots and 

 lines of bay and fawn-color, most numerous at the larger end. The three nests 

 are just alike in every way. They consist externally of short dry spruce twigs; 

 and internally of a black wool-like lichen, closely felted, and with a scanty admix- 

 ture of feathers and bits of grasses. The nests are nearly black, and thus present 

 an odd appearance as compared with those of the usual consistency of other birds. 

 The nest measurements are: internal diameter 2.20, depth 1.20; external diameter 

 4.00, depth 2.50. A series of 20 oi Loxia leiicoptcra from the Kowak Valley do not 

 differ in any constant characters from specimens of the same species from Maine 

 and Labrador. The species is resident in both extremes of its range, and I had 

 expected to find a perceptible amount of geographical variation. The native 

 name of this bird is Si-zhook-a-ping'a-ruk. 



Acanthi^ horiiemaiinii exilipes (Coues). 

 Hoary Redpoll. 

 The Hoary Redpoll was a common resident throughout the region under con- 



