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AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine 

 forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September 

 to the middle of April. It is not improbable that some of 

 them remain during summer within the territory of the 

 United States to breed. Their numbers must, however, be 

 comparatively few, as I have never yet met with any of them 

 in summer ; though lately I took a journey to the Great Pine 

 Swamp beyond Pocano mountain, in Northampton county, 

 Pennsylvania, in the month of May, expressly for that pur- 

 pose; and ransacked, for six or seven days, the gloomy 

 recesses of that extensive and desolate morass, without being 

 able to discover a single crossbill. In fall, however, as well 

 as in winter and spring, this tract appears to be their 

 favourite rendezvous ; particularly about the head waters of 

 the Lehigh, the banks of the Tobyhanna, Tunkhannock, and 

 Bear Creek, where I have myself killed them at these seasons. 

 They then appear in large flocks, feeding on the seeds of 

 the hemlock and white pine, have a loud, sharp, and not 

 unmusical note; chatter as they fly; alight, during the 

 prevalence of deep snows, before the door of the hunter, and 

 around the house, picking off the clay with which the logs 

 are plastered, and searching in corners where urine, or any 

 substance of a saline quality, had been thrown. At such 

 times they are so tame as only to settle on the roof of the 

 cabin when disturbed, and a moment after descend to feed as 

 before. They are then easily caught in traps ; and will fre- 

 quently permit one to approach so near as to knock them 

 down with a stick. Those killed and opened at such times 

 are generally found to have the stomach filled with a soft 

 greasy kind of earth or clay. When kept in a cage, they 

 have many of the habits of the parrot ; often climbing along 

 the wires ; and using their feet to grasp the cones in, while 

 taking out the seeds. 



This same species is found in Nova Scotia, and as far north 

 as Hudson's Bay, arriving at Severn Eiver about the latter 

 end of May ; and, according to accounts, proceeding farther 



