BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 297 
I suppose these were young birds, probably attended by the 
relative proportion of adult parents. It would seem from 
reliable testimony that the period of incubation in different 
localities extends from January into June, which is certainly 
very remarkable for a species reputed to rear but one brood in 
the year. 
As I have never seen the nest of the Red Crossbill, I shall 
permit myself to reproduce from Mr. Langille’s work a quota- 
tion from the description of one by Mr. E. P. Bicknell, found at 
Rimdel, N. Y. 
‘‘The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty 
foliage, about 18 feet from the ground, and was without any 
single main support, being built in a mass of small, tangled 
twigs from which it was with difficulty detached. The situa- 
tion could scarcely have been more conspicuous, being close to 
the intersection of several roads, in plain sight of as many 
residences, and constantly exposed to the view of passers-by. 
The materials of its composition were of rather a miscellaneous 
character, becoming finer and more select from without inwards. 
An exterior of bristling spruce twigs, loosely arranged, sur- 
rounded a mass of matted shreds of cedar bark which formed 
the principal body of the structure; a few strips of the same 
appearing around the upper border; the whole succeeded on the 
inside by a sort of felting of finer material, which received the 
scanty lining of horse hair, fine rootlets, grass, straws, pieces of 
string and two or three feathers. The shallow felting of the inner 
nest can apparently be removed intact from the body of the 
structure, which, besides the above mentioned materials, con- 
tains small pieces of moss, leaves, grass, strings, cotton 
substances and the green foliage of cedar. The nest measured 
internally two and a half inches in diameter by one and a 
quarter in depth, being in diameter externally about four 
inches and rather shallow in appearance.”’ 
The eggs are four to five in number varying in size, pale 
greenish variously marked in dots and blotches, with different 
shades of lilac and purplish-brown. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Male dull red, darkest across the back; wings and tail dark, 
blackish-brown; female dull greenish-olive above, each feather 
with a dusky centre; rump and crown bright greenish-yellow; 
beneath grayish; tinged, especially on the sides of the body 
with greenish-yellow; young, entirely brown; paler beneath. 
Length (male), about 6 inches; wing, 3.30; tail, 2.25. 
Habitat, North America generally. 
