8 
Bicknell on the Nesting of the Bed Crossbill. 
severity, during which most of our boreal birds appeared in greater 
numbers, and extended their range further to the southward than 
for many winters before. At Riverdale, New York City, Red Crossbills 
were first observed in 1874 on November 3 (a small flock). They 
remained apparently bat a few days, but reappeared in larger num- 
bers about a month later, and thereafter during the ensuing winter 
were constantly present in small roving flocks. At one locality, in 
particular, they were almost always to be found. This was about 
several private residences overlooking the river, whose grounds, 
abounding with various species of ornamental evergreens and co- 
nifers, especially larches and the Norway spruce [Abies excelsa), 
seemed to offer them especial attractions. Here as the winter waned 
the birds became none the less common, and in the mild mornings 
of early spring-time this species, as w T ell as Pinicola enucleator, would 
often be found in full song, frequently on the same tree. As I now 
recall them, the song of the Grosbeak was a subdued rambling war- 
ble, interrupted with whistling notes ; that of the Crossbill bolder 
and more pronounced as a song. During the third week in April a 
male was daily heard singing about the same spot, and on the 2 2d, 
in following up his notes, I came upon the female busily at work 
upon a nest. Several times I watched it arrange a burden of build- 
ing materials, gathered from the ground but a few yards distant, in 
the almost completed structure, which on another visit a few days 
later appeared to be finished, but was empty. On the 30th, how- 
ever, it contained three eggs. On shaking the tree the female 
fluttered from the nest, and while I was ascending both birds flew 
about me with notes of distress and alarm, the female approaching 
within a foot when the nest was reached, though her mate exercised 
a greater degree of caution. Notwithstanding all this demonstration, 
however, the male bird (unquestionably of this pair) was observed 
near the nest a short time afterward in full song. 
The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty foliage, 
about eighteen feet from the ground, and was without any single 
main support, being built in a mass of small tangled twigs, from 
which it was with difficulty detached. The situation could scarcely 
have been more conspicuous, being close to the intersection of 
several roads (all of them more or less bordered with ornamental 
evergreens), in plain sight of as many residences, and constantly 
exposed to the view of passers-by. The materials of its compo- 
sition were of rather a miscellaneous character, becoming finer 
