The Crossbills 
139 
song, heard in the bird’s summer home, is a remarkably loud and rich 
series of trills, twitters and whistles, suggestive of the song of a strong- 
voiced canary.” 
“The Crossbills of both species,” Dr. Coues Singing 
writes, “are birds of the most strongly marked origi- 
nality of character, and it is never safe to predict what they may or may 
not be found doing. Their most remarkable habit is that of breeding 
in the winter, or very early in the spring, when one would think it im- 
possible that their callow young could endure the rigors of the season.” 
While the White-winged Crossbill breeds regularly only in northern 
Canada, and appears in the United States only in its winter wanderings, 
sometimes extended as far south as Virginia, the Red Crossbill seems 
to be bound by no law, and it is possible to find a pair of them nesting 
almost anywhere in New England. 
Dr. Coues mentions a nest taken in Maine in the month of February, 
and a nest has been found in East Randolph, Vermont, so early in March 
that the ground was covered with snow and the weather was very severe. 
The nest is made of roots and twigs, moss-lined, in the shape of a ball 
entered through a small hole in the side; and is usually situated well up 
in an evergreen tree. The eggs are dull green, spotted 
on the large end with brown and lavender. The nest ^ st 
and eggs of the White-winged species are essentially 
similar. The parents are so devoted to their young that they have 
been lifted from the nest in some cases without showing much alarm. 
These birds are most affectionate parents, appearing to be entirely 
insensible of danger in defence of their homes ; and at all times they 
exhibit a confidence in man that is too often misplaced. Edward W. 
Nelson noticed this in Alaska, where the Red Crossbill is rare, but the 
White-winged is to be seen everywhere that forests grow. “It is more 
familiar,” Nelson tells us, “than the Pine Grosbeak, frequently coming 
down among the smaller growth ; and it is a common sight to see parties 
of them swinging about in every conceivable position in the tops of the 
cottonwoods or the birch-trees, where the birds are busily engaged in 
feeding upon the buds. . . . They pay no heed to a passing party of 
sleds except, perhaps, that an individual will fly down to some conve- 
nient bush, whence he curiously examines the strange procession, and then, 
his curiosity satisfied or confidence restored, back he goes to his com., 
panions and continues his feeding. When fired at they utter chirps of 
alarm, and call to each other with a long, sweet note.” 
The diet of these birds is not so exclusive as many suppose ; they 
like berries, the seeds of the mountain-ash, alder, birch, 
and similar trees and shrubs, and may sometimes be Food 
seen helping themselves to decayed garden fruits. 
Maynard has observed them feeding on the seeds of beach-grass, and 
has also found the stomach filled with canker-worms. 
If one has no evergreens immediately about the house, the Cross- 
