Loxia minor 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. 
1895. young birds of either species. Crossbills are evidently very 
Sept.I. numerous this autumn. I see or hear them everywhere and while 
L up the Cambridge to-day we were rarely out of the sound of 
their piping. Their abundance is evidently due to the fact 
that the spruces and balsams are loaded with cones which are 
fast turning brown.- 
Sept.IO, During the day we were rarely out of sight or sound of 
Crossbills. Both species appear to be equally common. While 
I was watching the Ducks at Bottle Brook Pond a Red Crossbill 
I 
sang for nearly an hour in one place, repeating its song at 
short regular intervals. There was little or no wind at the 
time and although the bird was perched on a spruce on the op¬ 
posite side of the pond fully 200 yards from me, its song fill-' 
, 
ed my ears. It was fully as loud as the song of a Purple 
Pinch. I heard it to much better advantage here than in the 
case of the birds singing at Upton on August 29th for the 
singing there was more or less medley singing by several birds 
at once and moreover there were other noises such as the 
voices of men, of cattle, whereas here my songster had the 
whole sleeping forest to himself. His song did not vary in 
I 
the least with the different repetitions but was invariably 
i 
of eight notes or perhaps I should rather say of four notes 
repeated twice without any appreciable pause between the two 
31 
