216 THE BIRDS 
HYPOTHETICAL. 
FAMILY FRINGILLID/Z.—FINCHES, 
SPARROWS, ETC. 
GENus Loxia. 
[521]. Loxta curvirostra minor (Brehm). Crossbill. 
Raner.—Northern North America. Breeds from cen- 
tral Alaska, northern Mackenzie, central Ungava and 
Newfoundland south to California (Sierra Nevada and 
San Bernardino mountains), southern Colorado, Michi- 
gan, and casually in Massachusetts and the Alleghenies 
south to Georgia; winters irregularly south to southern 
California, New Mexico, northern Texas, Louisiana, and 
Florida; casual in Lower California, Gaudalupe Island, 
and Bermuda. 
Giles, Grayson, Washington, and possibly Craig coun- 
ties, offer the best nesting grounds for this bird of the 
Canadian zone. 
As the name would imply, the bird has its bills crossed, 
and thus is easily recognized. I have only seen it once in 
Tidewater Virginia; during the protracted cold weather 
of early 1912. Professor Smyth reports it at Blacksburg 
in January; and again a large flock in June, from which 
specimens were shot. They are an erratic bird, seldom 
found breeding in the same locality two successive sea- 
sons, even though their food of seeds of the pine cones is 
plentiful. The nest is placed on a branch or fork of a 
