AMERICAN CROSSSILL. 39 



anal region and lower tail-coverts, and occasionally even tingeing the latter), and also invading, 

 more or less, the crown, hind neck, back, etc., or else, if absolutely restricted within very definite 

 limits, the tint not an intense carmine or crimson. Female: Above, entirely grayish-brown, indistinctly 

 streaked with darker; beneath, everywhere white, broadly streaked with dark grayish-brown. 

 "Length about 6.00 inches; wing, 3.08; tail, 2.57 inches." (After Ridgway.) 



AMERICAN CROSSBILL, 



Loxia curvirostra minor Ridgway. 



When the flowers long have withered. 

 And the wind blows chill north-west, 



In the hemlock bough a bird is 

 Building then a little nest. 



There this bird of blood-red plumage, ] 



'Spite grim winter's darkest mood, j 



Faithful to her instindt, hatches t 

 Fervently her little brood. 



Wonderbird, oh faithful Crossbill: 1 



When the world looks drear' to me, 



"With but duties ties to hold me, 

 Then, oh then I think of thee ! 



From the German of Julius Mosen, 



by Frank Siller. 



IJ^HE POET calls the Crossbill a "Wonderbird," and not without good reason. 

 This bird of the evergreen Asroods has some startUng peculiarities which really 

 justify this term. It occupies quite a place in poetry and fairy-tale, being the Gypsy 

 among the birds, the Parrot of the evergreen forests, whose courtship and song even 

 bid defiance to winter, w^hen ice and snow^ cover the earth and weigh down the dense 

 branches of the pine, spruce, and hemlock. The real home of the Crossbill is found in 

 the vast and lonely northern forests of coniferous trees, not often trodden by human feet. 

 There they live in great numbers. They are not confined to any particular region, but 

 are great w^anderers, and sometimes suddenly appear in localities where they were never 

 seen before, and then disappear as mysteriously as they came. Their migrations depend 

 on the abundance or scarcity of the seeds of the evergreens, their favorite food. If 

 that be plentiful, they remain, if not, they w^ander on, even into thickly settled localities. 

 They often breed there and then disappear as suddenly as they came. Sometimes they 

 arrive in large numbers in forests w^here they were not seen for years. Apparently they 

 make the locality their home, they breed, raise their young, and are off again to renew 

 the same process in other parts of the country during another year. In America their 

 migrations have extended as far south as Mexico. Doubtless the quality and quantity 

 of the coniferous seeds in the different parts of the country have much to do with their 

 coming, remaining, and departing. These irregular movements can only be explained by 

 supposing that larger or smaller flocks of them are moving throughout the entire year, 



