COMMON CROSSBILL. 317 



Curviroatra americana, Wheatost, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 1861, 366, 375; Eeprint, 7, 17. 

 Loxia curviroatra var. americana, Langdon, Cat. Birds Cio., 1877, 8 ; Revised List, Journ. 

 Ciu. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 175 ; Reprint, 9. 



Loxia curviroatra, Forstbr, Phil. Trans., Ixii, 1772, No. 23. 

 Curviroatra americana, Wilson, Am. Orn., iv, 1811, 44, 

 Loxia americana, Bonapartk, List, li^Sd, 38. 

 Loxia carmroatra var. americana, CouBS, Key, 1872, 351. 



Male bricky-red, wings blackish, unmarked ; female brownish-olive, streaked and 

 speckled wirh dusky, the rnaip siiffion. Immature ii)ale.s mottled with greenish and 

 greenish-yellow. Length, al)0u . 6; wing, : J; tail, 2-J-. 



Habitat, Northern North America; south into the United States in winter. Resident 

 in Maine and in mountains to Pennsylvania. 



Irregular and erratic visitor, usually in vpinter, perhaps breeds. Dr. 

 Kirtlaad in 1838 had not met with it, but believed it to have occurred 

 in Ashtabula county. Mr. Read gives it as an occasional winter visitor. 

 I saw a specimen said to have been taken in this vicinity in the winter 

 of 1859-60. In the winter of 1868-9 Mr. Dury found them abundant, 

 feeding upon the seeds of the horse-weed in the vicinity of Cincinnati. 

 Mr. C. J. Orton took a specimen at Yellow Springs a few years later. Mr. 

 Langdon notes their occurrence in the vicinity of Cincinnati in the win- 

 ter of 1874-5. In Bull Nutt. Orn. Club, iv, 1879, 62, I noted its appear- 

 ance as follows : 



" On the 18th of Jane last Mr. Charles Hinman killed one of these birds out of a flock 

 of eight or ten which visited the coniferous trees iu his garden in this city. The speci- 

 men which came inta my possessiou by the kindness of Mr. Oliver Davie was a male, 

 not in fall plumage. I have siuce learned that the Red Ciossbill has remained during 

 the season in the vicinity of Cleveland in considerable numbers, and is reported to have 

 nested there." 



I was unable to learn whether its nest had been actually discovered. 

 It has been known to nest in Indiana within a few years. 



The Crossbill subsists mainly upon the seeds of pine and coniferous 

 trees, for obtaining which, their curious bills are said to be peculiarly 

 adapted. They are commonly reported to breed in winter or early spring, 

 while the weather is yet severe. But little is known of their breeding 

 habits, only very few nests having been discovered. One described by 

 Dr. Brewer, was taken by Mr. Chas. S. Paine, in East Randolph, Vermont; 

 another by E. P. Bricknell, Riverdale, New York City, April 30, 1875. 

 This nest and eggs are described by him in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, v, 1880, 

 7, as follows : 



"The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty foliage, about eighteen 

 feet from the ground, and was without any single main support, being built in a mass 

 of small tangled twigs, from vfhich it was with difficulty detached. The situation conld 



