1894.] The Range of Crossbills in the Ohio Valley. 143 
noticed twice; a party of six on June 5th, and two birds, a 
male and female, in one of my pine trees on July 21st. I 
looked for the nest in the tree, but unfortunately it was not 
there. I think now that I have met with the species on sev- 
eral occasions in former years but did not know them. Fre- 
quenters of private gardens, they were only seen when on 
wing or distant tree tops and evaded identification. With us 
it is a shy and restless bird, easily alarmed and flying a great 
distance. Before taking wing and while in the air they are 
quite noisy with a note closely resembling the parent call of 
Progne ; 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 are also 
feeding on elins. ” 
Mr. W. S. Blatchley gives me the following notes :—“ While 
sitting on the porch of a farm house in Putnam County, Indi- 
aua, July 11, 1892, I saw a single Crossbill Lozia curvirostra 
minor alight in the top of a pine tree in the yard and begin 
searching the cones for seeds. I watched it for almost ten 
minutes and then, that there might be no possibility of mis- 
take in the identification, procured a gun and shot it. It 
proved to bea young male. On July 15th, another young 
male, i. e., a male presumably of the previous year’s hatching, 
was secured from the same tree and kept in confinement for 
several days, but was finally allowed its liberty.” 
The American Crossbills have, as has been shown, been 
noted within the region between the great lakes and the Ohio 
River in the following winters: 1868-9; 1869-70; 1874-5; 
1882-3 ; 1883-4; 1884-5; 1885-6; 1887-8; 1888-9; 1889-90; 
1890-91; 1891-2. From 1882 to 1892 they were only absent 
One year, 1886-7. In the winters of 1882-3; 1884-5; 1887-8, 
the area of dispersal was wide and the birds seem to have 
been generally distributed. Other years as 1868-9 ; 1869-70; 
1883-4 they appeared, or at least were observed, in but few 
localities, but where noted they were abundant. 
The results of the inquiries concerning its summer range, 
Particularly with relation to the Ohio Valley and the territory 
adjacent thereto have been wholly unexpected. Summing 
