Notes from Millbury, Mass. 
Red Crossbills, in small docks, have been 
about here most of the winter, v VliiiliC u 
Crossbills have also been seen several times, 
nearly always feeding on the ground, and live 
have been taken. v Redpolls have been very 
numerous all winter in flocks containing from 
two to three hundred. They often came into 
the gardens, and fed on small seeds; and 
twice 1 have seen them in the middle of the 
street with European Sparrows,, Bluebirds^ 
Rusty Blackbirds, , Red-headed Wood- peckers-; 
and Winter Wrens were seen February 24tlu 
the 25tli, Song Sparrows could be heard along 
the Blacks tone river. U- T. V. O. 
O.&o. XV. Apr. 1890 
m<.. . 
On the 17th of Marcli I made a similar excursion north of the 
city^into the townships of East and West Flamboro’, -having for 
company, as before, the same male member of my family, aged 
fifteen. These .townships are much broken up by cedar swamps 
and rough, uncleared land. Even at this advanced date the 
roads leading north and south were blocked with snow as high 
as the fences, and the farmers had taken down the rails and were 
traveling for miles through the fields parallel with the road to 
avoid the drifts. On a bare spot under a low-growing pine 
which stood in a cleared field, some dark colored little birds 
were observed hopping about among the fallen cones. A closer 
inspection showed them to be White-winged C rossbil ls ; and so 
little did they seem to understand the effects of the gun that we 
got them all, seven in number, without leaving the tree. The 
males had partially assumed the red plumage, and the females 
were, as usual, green with white bars. 
* tBVb - Bull N.O.O, 8, July. 1883, p. MG . 
Ma . TV) ? . oio^o % A. 00 - 
A Feafhered Stranger. 
Within the Dast week, writes li. from Newton, 
Mass., there has been in this vicinity quite a 
number of birds known as the white-winged 
cross-bill. The birds have their homo much to 
the north of us, rarely nesting south of the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. 
The cross-hill derives its name from the pecul- 
iar formation of its beak, the upper part of 
which is hooked and longer than the lower, and 
crosses it in such a manner that the points do 
not meet. 
In appearance this bird is somewhat larger and 
heavier than the English sparrow, and its dis- 
tinguishing marks are head and body plumage 
of red, and two spots of clear white on each 
brown wing. 
The female differs from its mate in the color 
of the body plumage, which is canary yellow in 
place of the other’s red. 
f Their note is rather a plaintive chirp, and not 
unpleasant. Natural history states that they 
can be tamed and that they become very affec- 
tionate house birds. 
In their wild state they feed on the buds and 
seeds of trees and grasses, and they climb up 
branches something after parrot fashion, by 
means of their peculiarly shaped claws. 
Their presence here would seem to indicate 
> either an approaching spell of severe weather or i 
else their customary feeding grounds are buried 
i by snow, and they are obliged to seek their food 
« farther south from that cau8e. / rr 1 
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