A. W. BUTLER. 



SZ 



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 i, 1892, Messrs. A. B. Ulrey and E. M. Kindle 

 report seeing six in Monroe County, Indiana. Mr. G. G. 

 Williamson noted six near Muncit, 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 15, 19, 

 23 and 30 ; May i, 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 them are Austrian 

 pines, the rest white and Scotch pines. Coniferous trees do 



