FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: MEXICAN CROSSBILL 707 
On the west slope of the Taos Mountains a few scattered spruces 
follow Lucero Creek out to the mesa, and in the last of the line a flock 
of Crossbills gathered on September 26, 1903, its top, brown with cones, 
calling them from a distance to a feast. 
They are hardy mountaineers, ready to accept the good offices 
of man on their wanderings. Like Cassin Finches, they are peculiarly 
fond of salt, taking it wherever they can find it, and, when thirsty in 
winter, they have been known to wait to have the ice broken for them 
on watering troughs, cheerfully “singing subdued songs, meanwhile.” 
Their nesting season begins early. In British Columbia Mr. 
Munro saw the first nuptial flight on February 19, courtship being over 
in March. An interesting nest that he found was made largely of 
black tree moss, its rim being decorated with tufts of the vivid yellow 
lichen (Evernia vulpina), which should have toned well with the colors 
of the female, as it does with those of the Evening Grosbeak. The 
inside of the nest was felted with black tree moss and contained a 
breast feather of a Red-tailed Hawk (1919a, pp. 57-60). 
Additional Literature.—Miller, O. T., With the Birds in Maine, 5-10, 
1904.—Wright, M. O., Educational Leaflet 35, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc. 
MEXICAN CROSSBILL: L6xia curvirostra stricklandi Ridgway 
Plate 63 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 5.9-6.3 inches, wing 3.7-4, tail 2.1-2.3, 
bill .7-.9. Female: Length (skins) 5.7-G.3 inches, wing 2.4-3.9, tail 1.9-2.1, bill 
.7-.8. Similar to L. c. bendirei but decidedly larger. 
Range.— Mountains of northern Lower California, Arizona, Colorado (rarely), 
central New Mexico, and western Texas south to Guatemala. 
State Records. —The status of the red Crossbills of New Mexico is very 
unsatisfactory. Apparently neither nests nor birds have been reported during the 
probable very early breeding season. At Fort Lewis, Colorado, a few miles north 
of the line, eggs were taken late in January (Morrison), and at Monument, in 
central Colorado, eggs were found from January to April (Breninger), while to the 
westward in Arizona young just able to fly were taken, March 7, 1881, in the Chiri- 
cahua Mountains (Brewster). Apparently the earliest recorded date for New 
Mexico is May 10,1889, when they first appeared near Cooney (Barrell), and became 
common May 15. This is not far from the Chirieahua Mountains, and these 
birds may have nested in the vicinity of Cooney or have wandered there after 
having nested at an earlier date in the Arizona Mountains. [On June 1, 1924, 
Jensen saw a flock in Santa Fe Canyon—four males and four females. Three 
others were seen the same day farther up the canyon.] Late in summer and fall 
specimens were taken, on July 12, 1892, at Tres Piedras, 8,000 feet (Loring); August 
13, 1905, in the higher yellow pine and spruce forests of the San Mateo Mountains 
(Hollister); and October 5-8, 1903, from 7,300 feet to the spruces in the Manzano 
Mountains (Gaut). [A pair of adults in full plumage was taken from a flock of 
8 or 10, November 10, 1925, in the Big Burro Mountains near Tyrone at 7,800 feet 
(Kellogg).] There is no surety that any of these birds had nested in New Mexico, 
or if so that they had nested at the altitude where they were found in the fall. 
