38o 
SINGING BIRDS. 
White-winged species, a flock of the same birds made their 
appearance as early as the nth of November in some tall 
pine-trees in the same place they visited the last year in the 
depth of winter. They are very busy and unsuspicious, having 
very much the manners of Parrots in their feeding. At some 
distance beneath the trees where they are engaged, we can 
hear them forcing open the scales of the rigid pine cones with 
a considerable crackling, and the wings of the seeds fly about 
in all directions. Sometimes the little Redpolls also attend to 
snatch a seed or two as they are spread to the winds. They 
fly somewhat like the Yellow Birds, by repeated jerks and sink- 
ings and risings in their course, but proceed more swiftly and 
directly to their destination ; they also utter a rather loud and 
almost barking or fifing chirp, particularly the females, like 
'tsh 'tship 'tsh ’(ship. Their enemies seem also to follow them 
into this distant and unusual retreat. One evening, as they 
were uttering their quailing chirp, and about to roost in the 
pines, we heard an unusual cry, and found that the alarm was 
justly occasioned by the insidious and daring attack of a bold 
Butcher Bird {Lanius borealis), who had taken advantage of 
their bewildered confusion at the moment of retiring to repose. 
Besides their call and ordinary plaints, we hear, as I have 
thought, now and then, in the warmer part of the day, a rather 
agreeable, but somewhat monotonous, song. We found these 
birds, as well as the Redpolls, very fat and plump and they 
devour a great quantity of pine-seeds, with which the oesopha- 
gus is perpetually gorged as full as in the gluttonous and tune- 
less Cedar Birds {Bo??ibydlla) . 
The Red Crossbill is still known to be chiefly a winter visitor to 
New England and the Middle States, though every summer a 
small number may be met with in the more northern districts and 
on the higher hills, and nests liave been taken in Maine, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, and New York. In April, 1S89, Mr. G. S. Miller' 
Jr., found a flock on Cape Cod, and upon dissecting several, he dis- 
covered evidence that they were nesting. 
In northern Maine and New Brunswick numbers have been 
seen during the summer months ; but even in these regions it is 
chiefly a winter visitor. 
