A. W. BUTLER. 53 
pond, where we collect all our water-birds, and noticed five 
birds on the ground, apparently probing in the mud with 
their bills. As they rose he shot one, which proved to be a 
male Red Crossbill in breeding plumage. He preserved 
the skin and still has it. The others were females or young, 
as he says none of them had any red on them.” 
Mr. Jonathan Dwight reports the American Crossbill on 
North Mountain, Penn., in June, 1891 (The Auk, IX., p. 
137). Dr. B. H. Warren, in his admirable “ Report on the 
Birds of Pennsylvania,” p. 228, gives it as breeding in the 
counties of Clinton, Clearfield, Luzerne, Lycoming, and 
Cameron, in that state. 
March 1, 1892, Messrs. A. B. Ulrey and E. M. Kindle 
report seeing six in Monroe County, Indiana. Mr. G. G. 
Williamson noted six near Muncie, Ind., April 16, 1892, and 
another April 24. Messrs. Charles D. and Lewis A. Test 
have kindly sent me the following interesting notes from 
observations of the spring of 1892, taken near Lafayette, 
Ind. : March 8, 1892, saw the first American Crossbill ; others 
were seen in the following dates: March 11; April 1s, 19, 
23 and 30; May 1, 3, 6, 8, 18, 20, 21,27 and 30; June 2, 6, 
22, 23,27 and 30. The birds were seen in pine trees and 
also in yards and along the road. Search was made for 
nests, but none were found. 
I am indebted to Mr. Otto Widmann for some valuable 
notes relating to the American Crossbill in Missouri in the 
winter of 1891-2, and the spring and summer of 1892. He 
says: “I never suspected these cone-loving nomads de- 
scended into a country so flat and uninteresting as St. Louis 
County, Mo., where nature never rears a cone without the 
help of the gardener. ‘Thousands of young evergreens, 
especially Norway spruces, have been planted during the past 
decade, but old conifers are few and far between. There 
are on my place, besides a few Norway spruces, eighteen 
pine trees about thirty years old. Half of themare Austrian 
pines, the rest white and Scotch pines. Coniferous trees do 
