138 
The Crossbills 
Crossed 
Mandibles 
flock of busy birds is at work over his head. Their mottled plumage 
conceals them very effectually among the evergreen foliage. 
Let us stand off a bit, with backs braced firmly against a tree, and 
examine the nearest bird as he hangs, head downward, on a long cone, 
with all the nonchalance of the up-side-down Chickadee. In length the 
Red Crossbill is a trifle smaller than the English Sparrow ; the body of 
the male is a dull brick-red, brighter on the rump and rusty in the middle 
of the back, shading to lead-gray on the wings. The female is a dull 
olive-green, with dark mottlings on head and back, and some white below ; 
the young may be marked like the female, or may 
show a mixture of red and green. One characteristic 
marks alike male and female and young, telling their 
name as plainly as the Chickadee calls his — the tips of the two halves 
of the beak, or mandibles, are crossed, as if they had been wrenched 
out of joint. 
No other kind of bird has a beak precisely like this. Parrot-like is 
a term frequently applied to the Crossbills, but though they live in flocks 
and climb about, using their claws very much like hands, in parrot-fashion, 
the likeness does not extend to their beaks. The upper half of the hooked 
bill of the Parrot so closes over the lower as almost to conceal it, but 
it does not cross past the lower mandible. Audubon was impressed by 
these characteristics, mentioning that the Crossbills cut apples to pieces, 
in order to get at the seeds, “in the manner of our Parrakeet of the 
South also, that “they frequently stand on one foot only, and employ 
the other in conveying the food to the bill in the manner of parrots.” 
The Red Crossbill is the one most commonly seen in the Eastern 
and Middle States, but in some years it may be outnumbered by the 
White-winged Crossbill ; and it often happens that both kinds will be 
mingled in one flock. The latter is a trifle smaller. 
Characteristics and differs chiefly in having two white wing-bars, 
white on the abdomen, and a decided pinkish tint 
on the upper parts of the body and breast. Both species have a swift, 
dipping flight, suggestive of that of the Goldfinch, and some of their call- 
notes uttered on the wing also remind one of those of that jolly little 
yellow finch. 
The Red Crossbill sings a light but very pleasing ditty, heard even 
in the wild weather of February and March, which Gerald Thayer 
describes in Eaton’s Birds of New York as a series of somewhat gold- 
finch-like trills and whistles, not long continued and far less rich than 
that of the White-winged Crossbills. It is more apt than the latter species 
to keep up a low twittering while feeding; and its common call-notes 
are like the peeping of young chickens. In reference to the White- 
winged, Mr. Thayer says : “The two common calls of this species are 
a loud, whistled wHeet-wheet-wheet, impossible to mistake for that of 
any other eastern bird, and an equally characteristic rolling twitter. 
. . . somewhat similar to the corresponding note of the Redpoll. Its 
