The Crossbills 



had started "combing" the likeliest fir tree with binoculars. At a point 

 15 feet down and 9 feet out, though still 60 feet from the ground, he had 

 detected a suspicious looking bunch, from which, upon investigation, a 

 female Grosbeak dropped like a plummet, almost to the ground. The 

 eggs, looking for all the world like those of a Red-winged Blackbird 

 (Agelaius phoenicens) , were fresh, and the birds did not venture near 

 enough to afford decent photographs, although I roosted for an hour in 

 the tree top. Indeed, it was with a feeling akin to disgust that I saw 

 these timorous fowls moping about like wet hens, when the romantic 

 hopes of an oological lifetime were about to be realized. I could have 

 spared the lobe of an ear, gladly, upon demand. 



No. 24 



Red Crossbill 



No. 24a American Crossbill 



A. 0. U. No. 521. Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm). 



Description. — Adult male: Tips of mandibles crossed either way; plumage 

 dull red (duller in winter), brightest on rump; feathers of back with brownish centers; 

 wings and tail fuscous. Shade of red very variable — English red to jasper red but never 

 vermilion. Immature males often present a curiously mottled appearance with greenish 

 yellow and red intermingled. Female: Dull olive-yellow, or better, brownish gray 

 overlaid with yellow; the color present on head and back as broad skirtings to feathers 

 having fuscous centers, on breast and sides more uniformly, and almost purely on 

 rump and upper tail-coverts; throat and crissal region with least yellow or none. Im- 

 mature (?) males are often indistinguishable from adult females, and it is not known 

 whether such ever attain the characteristic red plumage. Young birds are finely 

 streaked, dusky and buffy whitish, throughout, and everywhere more or less tinged 

 with yellow. Adult male, length 139. 7-158. 8 (5.50-6.25); wing 87.4 (3.44); tail 50 

 (1.97); bill 16.5 (.65); tarsus 16.5 (.65). Female very slightly smaller. 



Nesting. — Not known to nest in California. " Nest: in forks or among twigs of 

 tree, founded on a mass of twigs and bark-strips, the inside felted of finer materials, 

 including small twigs, rootlets, grasses, hair, feathers, etc. Eggs: 3-4, 0.75 x 0.57 

 [mm 19 x 14.5]; pale greenish, spotted and dotted about larger end with dark purplish 

 brown, with lavender shell-markings" (Coues). Season: Erratic, February to October; 

 one brood. 



Range of Loxia curvirostra. — Europe, northwestern Africa, northern Asia to the 

 Himalayas, and northern North America, or south in mountainous districts to Guate- 

 mala. 



Range of L. c. minor. — Northern and eastern North America, breeding in conif- 

 erous forests from northern Georgia to Nova Scotia, to Fort Anderson and to western 

 Alaska, southward through Pacific Coast district to western Oregon (Ridgway): (hence, 

 birds seen, but not taken, June 24, 1916, near Trinidad, Humboldt County, Cal., may 

 have been of this form); irregu'arly south in winter to South Carolina, Louisiana, 

 Nevada, and California. 



I46 



