Bicknell on the Nesting of the Bed Crossbill. 
7 
loving species as the Bay-breasted, Cape May, Blackburnian, and 
Blue Yellow-backed Warblers, the Red-bellied Nuthatch, the Golden- 
crested Kinglet, and many others, consorting with Winter Wrens, 
Water Thrushes, and Canada Flycatchers in the thickets by wood- 
paths, or along the banks of ponds or rivers ; and I know of no 
more interesting sight, especially if it be a bright September morn- 
ing, before the sun has risen above the trees. The dark foliage 
of the alders and viburnums is frosted with innumerable dew- 
drops, which fall in sparkling showers where a Warbler hops or 
a Woodpecker taps on the slender stems. Yellow and gold and 
scarlet liveries flash among the glossy leaves, as the active little 
forms appear and disappear, while the constant rustling and low- 
toned conversational chirping from the depths of the thicket suggest 
all sorts of pleasing mysteries. It is a pretty picture, this gath- 
ering of the birds in the quiet depths of the forest, with the tall 
spires of sentinel-like firs and spruces keeping guard against the 
sky, and the incessant rasping of the wood-borers, — Nature’s time- 
keepers, — counting the hours of the crumbling trunks around. 
REMARKS ON THE NIDIFICATION OF LOXIA CURVI- 
ROSTRA AMERICANA , WITH A DESCRIPTION OF ITS 
NEST AND EGGS. 
BY EUGENE P. BICKNELL. 
Among those of our abundant birds whose nidification remains 
very unsatisfactorily known, the Red' Crossbill ( Loxia curvirostra 
americana ) occupies no inconspicuous position. True, the nesting of 
the very intimately allied European form (curvirostra) is pretty 
thoroughly understood, but, so far as I can now recall, there is but 
a single authentic descriptive record of the nest and eggs of americana 
having been discovered. In vie w^ of these facts it is with much 
pleasure that I find myself able to describe the nest and eggs of this 
species taken in the Lower Hudson Valley ; theoretically one of the 
most unlikely places to be chosen as a breeding station in the State, 
and well illustrating the uncertain and erratic disposition of the 
species in question. 
The winter of 1874-75 will be remembered as one of extreme 
