54 



THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. 



not bear fruit every year, but last winter the Austrian pines 

 were full of cones, getting ready to drop the seeds in early 

 spring. Besides the maturing pine seeds our section had 

 another attraction for erratic fruit-eaters in the orchards. 

 The apple trees had yielded an enormous crop and the de- 

 mand not being sufficiently great to gather them in time, 

 thousands of apples were still hanging on the trees when the 

 Crossbills appeared on the scene. It was in the orchard that 

 they made their de'but on Nov. 13, the day after the first 

 blizzard had visited the upper Missouri valley. From this 

 day on the Crossbills remained in the neighborhood until the 

 end of the month, but none were here in December and Jan- 

 uary — at least I did not notice any until they began to 

 visit my pine trees in February. They were daily visitors all 

 through March and until the 17th of April. From that day 

 until May 8 none were seen, but from the 8th to the 14th 

 they were again daily callers. After this date they were 

 noticed twice, a party of six on June 5, and two birds, a 

 male and a female, in one of my pines on July 21st. I 

 looked for their nest in the tree, but unfortunately it was not 

 there. I think now that I have met with the species on 

 several occasion in former years, but did not know them. 

 Frequenters of private gardens they were only seen when on 

 wing or distant tree-top, and evaded identification. With us 

 it is ashy and restless bird, easily alarmed, and flying a great 

 distance. Before taking wing and while in the air they are 

 quite nois)^, with a note closely resembling the parent call of 

 the Purple Martin {Progne subis). But when feeding in a 

 pine tree the whole troop keeps perfectly silent and nothing 

 is heard but the noise made by breaking the cone-scales. 

 When present in May they were also feeding in elms." 



While sitting on the porch of a farmhouse in Putman Co., 

 Ind., on the morning of July 11, 1892, I saw a Red Cross- 

 bill alight on the top of a fir-tree in the yard and begin 

 searching the cones for seeds, I watched it for about ten 

 minutes and then, that there might be no possibility of mis- 



