Concord, Mass.
1899.                                                                                                                                        
Nov. 1 - 11
(Also 21, 23
& 26)
(Loxia leucoptera)[underlined] Barrett woods I saw a flock
alight for a moment, always in the tops of pitch pines.
These two had few come this year but the white pines 
were loaded with green ones which, however, did not
appear to attract the Crossbills. What these birds found
to eat in the covered woods I was unable to ascertain
but in the region about Cambridge (where they were
present in considerable but by no means unprecedented
numbers during most of November & the first half of December) they
fed chiefly on the seeds of the Norway spruces which
fruited heavily and the Crossbills were seen eating
their seeds on several occasions.
  I learned nothing new about the habits of these Crossbills.
Indeed their restless & erratic movements made it practically 
impossible to study them at all closely. As far as I
was able to ascertain they were never accompanied by
Red Crossbills nor did they appear to associate with
any other species of birds. I heard them utter only 
the regulation flight notes but Mr. Glover Allen tells
me that during the past summer (in August, I think it
was) when he found them very numerous on the
upper slopes of some of the White mountains the
males were singing freely.
  Lanius borialis - Shrikes were apparently as scarce this
autumn as they were last year. I saw only one during
the present month, a brownish-colored bird, near
the West Bedford station, on the 6th.
176