462 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



of this bird. The great natural cherry orchards of the moist burned 

 tracts form an unlimited area where the Goldfinches roam in 

 summer and rear their broods. A pair made a nest in a small birch 

 sapling near a trail through the Habitation Clearing. The sapling 

 was standing alone, and the site was a fork about five feet from the 

 ground. During the construction of the nest the birds are quite 

 noticeable by their dee ee calls ; and the nest itself may usually be 

 found by searching the saplings where they are heard calling during 

 the breeding period. This nest was within twenty feet of an old 

 stub containing a nest of a House Wren, and not far from a spot 

 where a pair of White- throated Sparrows were nesting along the 

 same trail. The pair of Goldfinches began work on their nest about 

 July 14; the first egg was deposited on July 21, and on July 27 there 

 were six eggs in the nest; the young were crowding the nest on 

 August 18, and they left it soon after August 20. 



White-winged Crossbill. Loxia leucoptera Gmel. 



Length 6. Male, rose-pink, middle of back black ; two white wing-bars. 

 Female, olive-green and dusky ; rump and under surface yellowish. 



A single specimen was seen in the open top of a tall tamarack in 

 the Bog on July 27. Generally, where Common Crossbills are regu- 

 larly found, the White- winged occurs with them in proportions of one 

 of the latter to ten or twelve of the former. 



Common Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm) 



Length 6.1. Red, mixed with greenish and yellow ; female olive-green 

 and yellowish. 



This Crossbill was seen and heard every day, often only a pair or 

 a group of four or five, and once a flock of twelve or fifteen. The 

 seeds of the white birch appeared to be their principal food after 

 the cones began to ripen. It seemed as if their visits to the campus 

 in the early part of June was to inspect the condition of the birch 

 seeds, and to determine whether there was to be an available supply. 

 A pair would swing into the trees, utter their quit-quit calls and 

 soon restlessly take flight for another neighborhood. Sometimes a 

 small family, apparently two adults and two juveniles, would visit 

 the trees, and this group was the most regularly noticed about the 

 campus. Frequently they would scatter, and one or two of them 

 would alight at the back door of the cook-house or in front of one 

 of the tents, gleaning from the sweepings. As the birch seeds 

 progressed to ripeness, the Crossbills would spend more time in the 

 trees, generally feeding so quietly that their presence would be un- 

 observed except as an occasional flutter of wings, or a low quit of 

 satisfaction, would reveal their operations, as they feasted on the 

 seeds. Later in the season the Crossbills were joined by a pair or 

 two of Goldfinches and several Purple Finches, all feeding more or 

 less in the birches. On the basis of the observations of these four 

 white birches on the campus, I should estimate that at least one 

 family of Crossbills in the neighborhood, one of Goldfinches and 

 one of Purple Finches, were supported during the month from 



