BY THE WAYSIDE 
38 
parrot’s bill is that of a hawk that has 
taken to eating only fruit. The spar¬ 
row’s bill is meant for seeds, the wood¬ 
pecker's for drilling into bark, and so 
on. But, Oh, horrors! here is a bird 
that surely is misshapen. Its bill is 
actually twisted. The upper part does 
not fit on the lower at all but passes 
to one side of it. The poor thing must 
have had an accident. But no! here 
is a whole flock on the pine tree, and 
all have twisted bills. So it must be 
a normal condition in this kind of 
bird. But how can such a misshapen 
mouth be good for anything. 
My friends, it is the crossbill and 
strange as it may seem, that twisted 
bill is good for something. More, it is 
so built that it may serve a very spe- 
, cial purpose. 
The natural food of the crossbill 
consists of the seeds of evergreen 
trees; pines, spruce, and so forth. To 
get the seeds the scales of the cone 
must be broken awav, and for this 
purpose there is no better tool than 
this same twisted bill. To watch a 
Hock gathering this peculiar food is 
very interesting, for the birds have a 
faculty of climbing quite parallel to 
that of parrots, and they make full 
use of it. While so engaged they are 
usually quite fearless of man, uncon¬ 
cernedly uttering a short whistle. 
Of the American crossbill which is 
the common Wisconsin and Illinois 
form, the male bird when full grown 
is a beautiful dull red in color, some¬ 
what brownish on the back; the fe¬ 
male however is a dull olive-green. 
The young birds are colored much like 
their mother, but show some red and 
green. So you see it makes a rather 
motley family. - 
No bird is more of a tramp. They 
never appear anywhere with any reg¬ 
ularity ; they may appear anywhere 
at any time. Even for the nesting sea¬ 
son, which conies early, they have no 
regular place. Their nests are usu¬ 
ally in evergreen trees, and high up.. 
They lav three or four eggs, greenish 
in color, dotted with brown or laven¬ 
der. For the winter many of them 
migrate as far south as Florida, many 
however stay right here with us in 
Wisconsin, and seem just as happy; 
which ought to be a lesson to those 
of us who cannot go to Florida. 
The white-winged crossbill, whose 
wings are really black and only tipped 
with white, is often seen in northern 
Wisconsin and occasionally finds its 
way to Illitnois. 
Before I close, I must tell a story 
that shows what funny things may 
happen sometimes. On the eastern 
shore of Lake Michigan is a cape 
known to sailors as Point Betsy. But 
it was no woman who was honored by 
that name. The old French explorers 
saw flocks of crossbills here, and so 
they called it “Point an Bees scies,” 
for “bees scies” is their name for 
crossbills, and when the “Yankee” re¬ 
placed the Frenchman along these 
shores ‘ ‘ bees scies'' became Betsy which 
is funny, don’t vou think so? 
*/ * 
By the Wayside iis sent gratis to 
members of the Wisconsin Audubon So- 
cietv. Write to Boland E. Kremers, 
Secretary, for terms of membership. 
