FEMALE WHITE. WINGED CROSSBILL. 
445 
The white-winged crossbills generally go to Hudson’s Bay 
on their return from the south, and breed there, none remain- 
ing during summer even in the most northern parts of the 
United States, where they are more properly transient irre- 
gular visitors, than even winter residents. They are seldom 
observed elsewhere than in pine-swamps and forests, feeding 
almost exclusively on the seeds of these trees, together with a 
few berries. All the specimens I obtained had their crops filled 
to excess entirely with the small seeds of Pinus inops. They 
kept in flocks of from twenty to fifty, when alarmed suddenly 
taking wing all at once, and after a little manoeuvring in the 
air, generally alighting again nearly on the same pines whence 
they had set out, or adorning the naked branches of some dis- 
tant, high, and insulated tree. In the countries where they 
pass the summer, they build their nest on the limb of a pine, 
towards the centre ; it is composed of grasses and earth, and 
lined internally with feathers. The female lays five eggs, 
which are white, spotted with yellowish. The young leave 
their nest in June, and are soon able to join the parents in 
their autumnal migration. 
In the northern countries, where these birds are very nu- 
merous, when a deep snow has covered the ground, they ap- 
pear to lose all sense of danger, and by spreading some favour- 
ite food, may be knocked down with sticks, or even caught by 
the hand, while busily engaged in feeding. Their manners 
are, in other respects, very similar to those of the common 
crossbill, as described by Wilson, and they are said also to 
partake of the fondness for saline substances so remarkable in 
that species. 
