THE IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



17 



old aod young of this species very 

 plentiful; arrived May 8, '94," [H. 

 J. Giddings.J "Common summer 

 resident in Van Baren county." [Il^m. 

 Savage.] "Very plentiful in Fayette 

 county," [W. W, Loomis.] Nests in 

 June in small trees from twelve to 

 twenty feet from the ground; eggs 

 four or five, white or grayish white 

 with markings of brown; beautiful 

 bird. 



Daviu L. Savage, Compiler, 



In a recent letter from J. Eugene 

 Liw, Perry, la., he speaks of taking 

 a specimen of the Pine creeping 

 Warbler [Dandroica vigorsii] on Sept. 

 11, 1894. This species is very rare 

 in the state and was not reported by 

 any of the other members of the I. 

 0, A. 



THE CliOiSBlLL iV IOWA. 



My acquaintance with the Ameri- 

 can Crossbill began in the fall and 

 winter of '84. I was then living in 

 DeWitt, in the eastern part of this 

 state. Iq our yard there were several 

 large evergreen trees, and in these 

 the Crossbills would spend a goodly 

 part of each day, as long as the flock 

 stayed in that vicinity. The fall of 

 '84 is as early as I remember seeing 

 the birds, but each fall and winter 

 after that up to '88, when we moved 

 from the place the Crossbills were, 

 regular winter visitors. Sometimes 

 they would stay in the vicinity as 

 long as two weeks, so I managed to 

 see a good deal of them. Oar house 

 was so situated that a balcony ex- 

 tended to within a few iftet of the 

 branches of two large evergreens, and 



from this place I have watched the 

 birds for hours at a time. Cones 

 were very numerous on these two 

 trees, which made it a favorite resort. 

 While feeding, the Crossbill is very 

 intent upon its work, and does not 

 seem to care "which end up" it is. 

 They cling to the cones in all manner 

 of positions, and a person may ap- 

 proach quite close to a flock without 

 startling the birds. The lower 



branches of these trees were not over 

 five feet from the ground, and I have 

 often approached to within easy 

 reach of the Orcssbills, but on the 

 least suspicious movement the whole 

 flock rises, uttering a sharp, peculiar 

 cry of one syllable. Ordinarily when 

 80 startled, the flock settles in the 

 near neighborhood after making a 

 few circles overhead. 



The largest flock I ever saw num- 

 bered about fifty, the usual number 

 beiug twenty-five or thirty and in all 

 the flocks I have seen, I notice that 

 generally about t^vo- thirds of the 

 uirds are females. Formerly I thought 

 thase birds must be kept on very 

 short rations, as the seeds are so hard 

 to extract from the cones, but upon 

 examiuiag the stomachs of several 

 specimens I fouud thit I was much 

 mistaken. They were literally 

 stuffed with seeds. Their peculiar 

 shaped bill is adapted to this particu- 

 lar purpose, and when the Crossbill 

 gets to work in earnest, it makes the 

 chips fly- 

 After leivia? DjWitt, I did not 

 see the Crossbill until the fall of '90, 

 when we moved to Hampton. Here 

 I again renewed my acquaintance 

 with the bird. I saw a small fiock 



