FINCHES. 177 



d. The song of the White-winged Crossbills, says Dr. 

 Brewer, is "irregular and varied, but sweet and musical." 

 These birds have a plaintive cry, distinct from the notes of 

 the Red Crossbill. 



n. PINICOLA. 



A. ENtrcLEATOE. Pme Grosheah. In Massachusetts a 

 winter visitant of very irregular appearance.* 



a. 8-9 inches long. $ , carmine. Back, dusky-streaked. 

 Belly, almost white. Wings and tail, dusky (or black) ; for- 

 mer with much white. § , " ashy gray above and streaked. 

 Paler below, and not streaked." Crown (and rump), marked 

 with rusty yellow. 



h. Dr. Brewer says: "No positively identified eggs of 

 the American Pine Grosbeak are as yet known in collections." 

 A European specimen measures about 1.00 X .75 of an inch, 

 and is greenish, blotched and spotted with brown and purplish, 

 chiefly dark tints. Mr. Boardman found near Calais, Maine, 

 " in an alder bush, in a wet meadow," a nest and two eggs, 

 referable to this species. 



c. The Pine Grosbeaks spend the summer season in the 

 cold regions which lie to the northward of New England, and 

 though, I believe, common winter residents in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, are rather rare, or at least irregular, in their ap- 

 pearance about Boston, and other parts of this State. They 

 are sometimes common here throughout the winter, wandering 

 in large flocks from place to place ; but at other times they 

 are wholly absent during the year, or at the most are seen but 

 once or twice after a cold "snap " or a heavy storm. I have 

 seen them from the first of November untU the latter part of 

 March, though their departure usually occurs earlier in the 

 season, since they habitually breed in March and April. It is 

 to be remarked that among our winter birds of this family, the 

 young almost invariably predominate, and often are unaccom- 

 panied by mature specimens. This interesting fact has not, so 



* A common but irregular winter has been found repeatedly in midsum- 



visitor to southern New England, some- mer among the mountains of northern 



times — as in the winter of 1892-93 — New England, where it doubtless 



occurring in very great numbers- It breeds sparingly. — W. B. 



