COMMON CROSSBILL. 317 
Curvirostra amexicana, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 1861, 366, 375; Reprint, 7, 17. 
Loxia curvirostra var. americana, LANGDON, Cat. Birds Cin., 1877, 8; Revised List, Journ. 
Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 175; Reprint, 9. 
Loxia curvirostra, FORSTER, Phil. Trans., lxii, 1772, No. 23. 
Curvirostra americana, WILSON, Am. Orn., a 1811, 44. 
Loxia americana, BONAPARTE, List, 1333, 38. 
Loxia curvirostra var. americana, COuES, Key, 1872, 351. 
Male bricky-red, wings blackish, unmarked; female brownish-olive, streaked and 
speckled with dusky, the ruutp saffeon. Immafure males mottled with greenish and 
greenish-vellow. Length, abou: 6; wing, «9%; tail, 24. 
Habitat, Northern North America; south into the United States in winter. Resident 
in Maine and in monntains to Pennsylvania. 
Irregular and erratic visitor, usually in winter, perhaps breeds. Dr. 
Kirtland in 1838 had not met with it, but believed it to have occurred 
in Ashtabula county. Mr. Read gives it as an occasional winter visitor. 
I saw a specimen said to have been taken in this vicinity in the winter 
of 1859-60. in the winter of 1868-9 Mr. Dury found them abundant, 
feeding upon the seeds of the borse-weed in the vicinity of Cincinnati. 
Mr. C. J. Orton took a specimen at Yellow Springs a few years later. Mr. 
Langdon notes their occurrence in the vicinity of Cincinnati in the win- 
ter of 1874-5. In Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iv, 1879, 62, I noted its appear- 
ance as follows: 
‘On the 18th of June last Mr. Charles Hinman killed one of these birds out of a flock 
of eight or teu which visited the coniferous trees in his garden in this city. The speci- 
men which came into my possession by the kindness of Mr. Oliver Davie was a male, 
not in full plumage. I have since learned that the Red Crossbill has remained during 
the season in the vicinity of Cleveland in considerable numbers, and is reported to have 
nested there.” 
I was unabie to learn whether its nest had been actually discovered. 
It has been known to nest in Indiana within a few years. 
The Crossbill subsists mainly upon the seeds of pine and coniferous 
trees, for obtaining which, their curious bills are said to be peculiarly 
adapted. They are commonly reported to breed in winter or early spring, 
while the weather is yet severe. But littie is known of their breeding 
habits, only very few nests having been discovered. One described by 
Dr. Brewer, was taken by Mr. Chas. S. Paine, in East Randolph, Vermont; 
another by H. P. Bricknell, Riverdale, New York City, April 30, 1875. 
This nest and eggs are described by him in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vy, 1880, 
7, as follows: 
‘‘The nest was placed in a tapering cedar of rather scanty foliage, about eighteen 
feet from the ground, and was without any single main support, being built in a mass 
of small tangled twigs, from which it was with difficulty detached. The situation could 
