8 
Bicknell on the Nesting of the Red Crossbill. 
severity, during which most of our boreal birds appeared in greater 
numbers, and extended their range further to the southward than 
My utmost efforts to discover the nest failed. Some old ones, 
which were hung in the usual manner near the extremity of birch 
or poplar limbs, may have originally belonged to this species, as 
several specimens of the birds were found in the grove, and no 
other Vireo seemed to be breeding near. The only one of these 
structures which I took pains to examine closely was somewhat 
smaller arid deeper than the average nest of Vireo olivaceus, being 
rather more like that of Vireo noveboracensis. 
At the close of the breeding season, when the brakes are turning 
brown, and occasional maples along the lake shore begin to glow with 
the burning tints of autumn, the Philadelphia Vireos join those 
great congregations of mingled Warblers, Sparrows, Woodpeckers, 
Titmice, etc., which at this season go trooping through the Maine 
woods. The specimens taken at Upton, in 1874, were in flocks of 
this kind, and several of them were shot in low bushes, an apparent 
exception to the rule previously given. But mixed society among 
birds, as well as men, is a great leveller of individual traits, and it 
is by no means uncommon on these occasions to find such tree- 
