[ lo;] 



CROSSBILLS AT THE LEANING HEMLOCKS 



April 13, 1860. As I was paddling [up the Assa- 

 bet] past the uppermost hemlocks I saw two peculiar 

 and plump birds near me on the bank there which 

 reminded me of the cow blackbird and of the oriole 

 at first. I saw at once that they were new to me, and 

 guessed that they were crossbills,^ which was the case, 

 — male and female. The former was dusky-greenish 

 (through a glass), orange, and red, the orange, etc., 

 on head, breast, and rump, the vent white; dark, 

 large bill; the female more of a dusky slate-color, 

 and yellow instead of orange and red. They were 

 very busily eating the seeds of the hemlock, whose 

 cones were strewn on the ground, and they were 

 very fearless, allowing me to approach quite near. . . . 

 They were very parrot-like both in color (especially 

 the male, greenish and orange, etc.) and in their man- 

 ner of feeding, — ■ holding the hemlock cones in one 

 claw and rapidly extracting the seeds with their bills, 

 thus trying one cone after another very fast. But 

 they kept their bills a-going so that, near as they 

 were, I did not distinguish the cross. I should have 

 looked at them in profile. At last the two hopped 

 within six feet of me, and one within four feet, and 



^ The crossbills photographed were found near the "Leaning Hem- 

 locks,'' — the identical locality noted by Thoreau, — only they were of 

 the white-winged species, while the birds Thoreau saw were evidently 

 red crossbills. The occurrence of either species in Concord is still a rare 

 event. H. W. G. 



