56 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. 



County, Ind., in the summer of 1 891-2. They remained 

 throughout a part of the summer of 1892 at Lafayette, Ind. 

 They remained even later at Old Orchard, IMo., in 1892. 



These notes serve to bring more clearly to mind the pecu- 

 liarly erratic character of the bird, of which we have known 

 to some degree, before. The notes also seem to indicate 

 that much of our lack of data is due to the scarcity of ob- 

 serves in years past. A few years ago the collection of data 

 regarding almost any species of bird from Indiana, or, 

 almost any other state, would have been an impossibility. 

 It is not improbable, could we begin with the abundance of 

 Crossbills at Cincinnati in 1S68-9, with a number of intel- 

 ligent observers equal to that available now, we could have 

 a collection of observations covering its whole range between 

 the Ohio River and the lakes, and perhaps including its 

 movements for almost every year. These blank years do not 

 necessarily signify that the bird was wanting in the territory 

 studied, but that, for some one of a great many reasons, it 

 was not observed. The erratic distribution of the species 

 applies as well to its summer range as to that in winter. It 

 seems very probable that the species breeds to some extent 

 throughout the Ohio valley. It is true that no specimens 

 of either its nest or eggs have been, so far as I know, pre- 

 served. Yet the evidence presented indicates that the breed- 

 ing range of the species in the United States is not confined 

 to the coniferous forests of the mountain ranges. 



Loxia leticoptera. White-winged Crossbill. This species 

 is not so often met with in the Ohio valley. Its range lies 

 farther northward. Its distribution within the United States 

 is much less extensive, both in winter and summer, than is 

 that of the Red Crossbill. Audubon mentions its breeding 

 in Pennsylvania in summer, but this is probably an excep- 

 tional case. Dr. J. M. Wheaton gives it in his Catalogue of 

 Birds of Ohio in 1861. Mr. Charles Dury found them abun- 

 dant in the vicinity of Cincinnati, O., in the winter of 1868-9, 

 in company with the other species, in large flocks contain- 



