Chapter C: S. Paine, of East Bethel, Vt., found a nest of this species about (20)

The last-named writer states that this species is a constant resident in all the western parts of California, but he met with none on the Colorado. They become rare on the coast at the Columbia, but farther in the interior are found as far north as latitude 49°. They breed as far south as San Diego, but seem to avoid the hot interior valleys, as well as the mountains. Their favorite resorts are where thistles and other composite plants abound, and also groves of willow and cottonwood, upon the seeds of which they feed largely. In winter the seeds of the buttonwood supply their chief subsistence.

The common Goldfinch was seen in abundance by Mr. Ridgway only in the vicinity of Sacramento City, associated with the _Carpodacus frontalis_, and often nesting in the same tree. In the interior this species was rarely seen, and only one specimen was secured in the Truckee Valley in May, and not noticed afterwards. It was, however, found breeding in the Uintah Mountains, where its nest and eggs were obtained. The nests procured by Mr. Ridgway were all found about June 6, except one, ten days later, showing that these birds are four or five weeks earlier in their breeding on the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast. In the Uintah Mountains they were breeding, as at the East, in July.

The Goldfinch is to a large extent gregarious and nomadic in its habits, and only for a short portion of the year do these birds separate into pairs for the purposes of reproduction. During at least three fourths of the year they associate in small flocks, and wander about in an irregular and uncertain manner in quest of their food. They are resident throughout the year in New England, and also throughout the greater portion of the country, their presence or absence being regulated to a large extent by the abundance, scarcity, or absence of their favorite kinds of food. In the winter, the seeds of the taller weeds are their principal means of subsistence. In the summer, the seeds of the thistle and other plants and weeds are sought out by these interesting and busy gleaners. They are abundant in gardens, and as a general thing do very little harm, and a vast amount of benefit in the destruction of the seeds of troublesome weeds. As, however, they do not always discriminate between seeds that are troublesome and those that are desirable, the Goldfinches are unwelcome visitors to the farmers who seek to raise their own seeds of the lettuce, turnip, and other similar vegetables. They are also very fond of the seeds of the sunflower.

Owing possibly to the scarcity of proper food for their young in the early summer, the Goldfinches are quite late before they mate and raise their single brood. It is usually past the 10th of July before their nests are constructed, and often September before their broods are ready to fly.

The song of the Goldfinch—very different from their usual plaintive cry or call-note, uttered as they are flying or when they are feeding—is very sweet, brilliant, and pleasing; most so, indeed, when given as a solo, with no other of its kindred within hearing. I know of none of our common singers that excel it in either respect. Its notes are higher and more flute-like, and its song is more prolonged than that of the Purple Finch. Where large flocks are found in the spring or early summer, the males often join in a very curious and remarkable concert, in which the voices of the several performers do not always accord. In spite of this frequent want of harmony, these concerts are varied and pleasing, now ringing like the loud voices of the Canary, and now sinking into a low soft warble.

During the warm summer weather the Goldfinch is very fond of bathing, and the sandy shelving margins of brooks are always their favorite places of resort for this purpose. I do not think they ever raise more than a single brood in a season in New England, and are in this somewhat irregular, depositing their eggs from July 10 to September, as it may happen.

They usually select a small upright tree, such as a young elm, apple, or pear, or a tall shrub, for their nest, which they rarely place higher than ten feet from the ground. Than the nest of our Goldfinch we have no more beautiful specimen either of the basket in shape or the felted in structure. Symmetrical in form, delicately and beautifully woven, and ingeniously and firmly fastened around the forked twigs with which it is interlaced, it is an exquisite example of architectural beauty and finish. A beautiful specimen from Wisconsin may be taken as typical. It measures three inches in diameter and two in height. The cavity is one and a half inches wide at the rim, and the depth is the same. The base of this nest is a commingling of soft vegetable wool, very fine stems of dried grasses, and fine strips of bark, all being in very fine shreds. The sides, rim, and general exterior of the nest is made up, to a large extent, of fine slender vegetable fibres, interwrought with white and maroon-colored vegetable wool. These materials are closely and densely felted together. The inner nest is softly and thoroughly lined with a softer felting made of the plumose appendages or pappus of the seeds of composite plants.

The eggs, usually five, rarely six in number, are of a uniform bluish-white, sharply pointed at one and rounded at the other end. They measure from .65 to .67 of an inch in length and from .50 to .55 in breadth. Dr. Cooper gives their measurement as .60 by .50; but of the contents of seven nests before me not an egg is less than .65 in length, and but one so small as .50 in breadth.

A nest of this Finch, built in a young elm-tree in Hingham, eight feet from the ground, was begun July 27, finished and the first egg laid August 1. By the 4th five eggs had been deposited, and on the 16th they had all been hatched.

Chrysomitris psaltria, var. psaltria, BONAP.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOLDFINCH; ARKANSAS GOLDFINCH.

_Fringilla psaltria_, SAY, Long’s Exped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 40.—AUD.
Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 85, pl. cccxciv. _Fringilla (Carduelis)
psaltria_, BON. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 54, pl. vi, f. 3. _Carduelis
psaltria_, AUD. Syn. 1839, 117.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 134, pl.
clxxxiii. _Chrysomitris psaltria_, BP. List, 1838.—IB. Consp.
1850, 516.—GAMBEL, Jour. A. N. S. 2d series I, 1847, 52
(female).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 422.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 168.

SP. CHAR. _Male._ Upper parts and sides of head and neck olive-green. Hood, but not sides of head below eyes, lores (or auriculars?), upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail black. Beneath bright yellow. A band across the tips of the greater coverts, the ends of nearly all the quills, the outer edges of the tertiaries, the extreme bases of all the primaries except the outer two, and a long rectangular patch on the inner webs of the outer three tail-feathers near the middle, white. _Female_ with the upper parts generally, and the sides olive-green; the wings and tail brown, their white marks as in the male. Length, 4.25; wing, 2.40; tail, 1.85. _Young_ like the female, but wing-bands more fulvous.

HAB. Southern Rocky Mountains to the coast of California; north to Salt Lake City (June 19; RIDGWAY), and Siskiyou Co., Cal. (VUILLE); south to Sonora (Arispe, Feb. 26; E. S. WAKEFIELD).

With quite a small series of specimens, a perfect transition can be shown from the typical _C. psaltria_, as above described, to the _C. columbianus_, the opposite extreme (see table, page 471). The former is the most northern, the latter the most southern form; _arizonæ_ and _mexicana_, intermediate in habitat, are also as strikingly so in plumage. The difference is in the _quantity_ of the black, this color predominating over the olive of the back and the white of wings and tail, in proportion as we go southward. There cannot, upon the whole, be any doubt that they are all specifically the same. The females can scarcely be distinguished.

HABITS. The Arkansas Finch was first discovered in Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and described by Say in 1823. It has since been met with in New Mexico and in various parts of California. Dr. Cooper did not find this species in the Colorado Valley, although Dr. Kennerly met with it along Williams Fork, in New Mexico. Dr. Woodhouse did not see it in his route to the Zuñi River, either in New Mexico or the Indian Territory.

Dr. Kennerly met with these birds in the month of February. He found them very abundant all along the banks of the Bill Williams Fork. They were feeding on the young buds of the cottonwood trees. At that season they were in small flocks, and the only note he heard from them was a short chirp, as they hopped from twig to twig, or flew from one tree to another.

Dr. Heermann states that he found these Finches abundant in the northern mining regions of California, frequenting and feeding in the same localities with the _C. lawrencii_, and often associated with the Pine Finch. He adds that, while thus associated, he shot a large number of both species. They seemed to be employed, at the time, in picking out the fine gravel mixed in the mud used as mortar for a chimney, flying away at each discharge of the gun, but returning, in a few minutes, to the same place.

Mr. Audubon regarded this species as accidental in Louisiana, having procured individuals a few miles from Bayou Sara.

The Arkansas Goldfinch was found by Mr. Ridgway among the Wahsatch Mountains, his attention being at once drawn to it by its curious notes. He first met with it in “City-Creek Cañon,” near Salt Lake City, where individuals of it were frequently found mixed in with flocks of _C. pinus_. The note of this bird is remarkable for its power and very sad tone. The ordinary note is a plaintive, mellow, whistling call, impossible to describe, and so inflected as to produce a very mournful effect. When the bird takes to flight, it is changed to a simple _cheer_, similar to the anxious notes of the male _Agelaius phœniceus_, uttered when its nest is disturbed. This species was quite rare, not being so common as either _C. pinus_ or _C. tristis_. Its nest was found in Parley’s Park, Wahsatch Mountains, June 22, in the top of a willow-bush near a stream.

At San Diego, and along the whole coast border of California, Dr. Cooper thinks that this Finch is rather rare. In the interior valleys they seem to be quite common. They also breed in small numbers in the Coast Range, near Santa Cruz. He states that their habits are very similar to those of the _C. tristis_, though they feed more on the ground, and more upon weeds than on trees, and are even more gregarious, remaining associated in flocks up to the first of June. Their song greatly resembles that of the common Goldfinch, but is much fainter.

Dr. Cooper never met with their nest, nor has he received any description of it. Mr. Xantus found one, containing four eggs, on the branch of an _Obione_, about ten feet from the ground. This was at Fort Tejon, the first of May. Dr. Canfield has also found their nests, in considerable numbers, near Monterey. They are built in the forks of trees, in the same manner with the _tristis_, are structures of remarkable beauty, and evince great skill in the architects. They contain usually four or five eggs. Except in size, their eggs greatly resemble those of the _C. tristis_, being of a uniform greenish-white, unspotted, of a rounded-oval shape, sharply pointed at one end. They measure .60 by .50 of an inch.

Chrysomitris psaltria, var. arizonæ, COUES.

ARIZONA GOLDFINCH.

_Chrysomitris mexicana_, var. _arizonæ_, COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866.—
COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 170.

SP. CHAR. (♂ 37,092, Fort Wingate, Arizona, June 28, 1864.) Above, including auriculars, glossy black, with a faint bluish reflection; nape, back, and rump much mixed with olive-green, this rather predominating; larger coverts broadly tipped with grayish-white; tertials, with almost the entire exposed portion of the outer webs, white; a patch on base of primaries, and the inner webs of the tail-feathers, except the ends, white. Beneath entirely lemon-yellow. Wing, 2.50; tail, 1.70; culmen, .35; tarsus, .50.

HAB. Southern boundary of Arizona and New Mexico, extending southward into Mexico, and gradually changing into _mexicana_, and northward into _psaltria_.

The specimen described above is from a series collected in Arizona by Dr. Coues: these examples vary in the relative amount of black and olive on the back, some having one, and others the other color predominating; the type selected is one which represents about the average plumage of this species from Arizona.

HABITS. Dr. Coues found these birds abundant summer residents of Arizona, where they are said to arrive the last of April and to remain until the middle of September. In August the males are stated to assume the dull plumage of the females. In autumn they become decidedly gregarious, and feed almost exclusively upon buds and seeds. He thinks they are not so numerous in the southern portions of the Territory. In a letter received from him he remarks:—

“This bird was found to be common in New Mexico near Fort
Wingate, at the eastern base of the main chain of mountains.
I first observed it on the 28th of June, when I found quite
a number together, and secured several specimens. They were
in small troops on a rugged hillside covered with a sparse
growth of junipers and stunted pines, feeding in company
with the _Poospiza bilineata_. Judging from their actions,
and from the fact that none but males were taken, I presume
they were breeding in the vicinity. I found some difficulty
in securing specimens, partly owing to the broken nature of
the locality, and partly to the birds’ timidity in the
unaccustomed presence of man. Those that were shot were all
found to have the æsophagus as well as the gizzard crammed
with seeds. They constantly uttered a plaintive lisping
whistle as they gathered food, or as they flew from one tree
to another, but their song did not strike my ear as
precisely the same as that of the Goldfinch. These specimens
were all in what I take to be perfect plumage, although the
back was mixed with olive and black in nearly equal
proportions, and the black of the pileum did not reach below
the eyes to cut off the yellow under eyelid from the other
yellowish parts of the head; thus closely resembling true
_psaltria_.

“Upon my arrival at Fort Whipple in July, I found birds of
this type abundant, and took a good many during the two
following months, when they disappeared, and I saw none
until about the first of May. A small ravine close by the
fort, choked with a rank growth of weeds, was a favorite
resort; there the birds could be found at nearly all times
in season, in large troops, feeding in company with Chipping
Sparrows, and the _Spizella atrigularis_. They were very
tame during the latter part of the summer, would only rise
when very closely approached, when they flew in a hesitating
manner a short distance, and then pitched down again among
the weeds to resume their busy search for food. In their
undulating flight they utter their peculiar note, generally
with each impulse of the wings, and keep up a continual
chirping when feeding; but I did not hear their true song at
this season. Some of the specimens taken were very young
birds, and the species unquestionably breeds here, although
I never succeeded in finding a nest.

“I should not omit to add, that whilst at Santa Fé, New
Mexico, I saw caged birds that were thriving well, and
apparently reconciled to confinement.”

A nest of this bird, obtained near Camp Grant, Arizona, by Dr. Palmer, is a flat and shallow structure, having a diameter of three inches, and a height of one and a quarter. The cavity is only a slight depression. This nest is made of a felting of various materials, chiefly the cotton-like down of the cottonwood-tree and other soft vegetable matter, fine stems of grasses, fragments of mosses, and various other similar materials, lined with finer materials of the same. Except in their slightly smaller size, the eggs are not distinguishably different from the preceding.

Chrysomitris psaltria, var. mexicana, BONAP.

BLACK GOLDFINCH; MEXICAN GOLDFINCH.

_Carduelis mexicanus_, SWAINS. Syn. Birds Mex. Phil. Mag. 1827,
435.—WAGLER, Isis, 1831, 525. _Chrysomitris mexicanus_, BP. Consp.
Av. 1850, 516 (quotes AUD. tab. 427).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858,
423, pl. liv, f. 1. _Astragalinus mexicanus_, CAB. Mus. Hein.
1851, 159.—IB. Journ. für Orn. 1861, 7 (with synonymy).—COUES, P.
A. N. S. 1866, 82. _Fringilla melanoxantha_ (LICHT.), WAGLER,
Isis, 1831, 525. _? Fringilla catotol_, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788,
914. _Fringilla texensis_, GIRAUD, 16 Sp. Birds Tex. 1841, pl. v.
f. 1 (gives white belly).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 169.

SP. CHAR. Upper parts continuously and entirely black; the feathers of the rump white subterminally, and showing this through the black; a few of the feathers with greenish-yellow between the white and the black; a few, perhaps, without black tips. The bases of the third to seventh primaries, and the ends of the tertiaries externally white. The tail is black, except the outer three feathers, in which the outer webs and tips only are this color; the rest white. Inside of wing black. Under parts of body pale yellow. _Female_ with the black of the head and body replaced by olive-green. Length, 4.12 inches; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.00.

HAB. Mexican side of the valley of the Rio Grande, southward; Oaxaca, June (SCL. 1858, 302); Cordova (SCL. 1856, 303); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis I, 19); Costa Rica (CAB. J. 1861, 7); Panama (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 331; winter).

HABITS. The Mexican Goldfinch is distributed from the western side of the Rio Grande, through Mexico and Central America, to Panama. Sumichrast mentions it as found throughout the State of Vera Cruz, but most abundant in the temperate region. It breeds in the vicinity of Orizaba. It was taken in Central America, by Mr. Skinner, and has been reported from Costa Rica, and from Panama in the winter. Of its distinctive peculiarities we have no information, but they probably do not differ from those of the other forms of _C. psaltria_.

Chrysomitris lawrencii, BONAP.

LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH.

_Carduelis lawrencii_, CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. V, Oct. 1850, 105, pl. v
(California). _Chrysomitris lawrencii_, BON. Comptes Rendus, Dec.
1853, 913.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 424.—HEERM. X, S, 50
(nest).—ELLIOT, Illust. Am. B. I, pl. viii.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1,
171.

SP. CHAR. _Male._ Hood, sides of head anterior to the middle of the eye, chin, and upper part of throat, black. Sides of head, neck, and body, upper part of neck and the back, and upper tail-coverts, ash-color. Rump and lesser wing-coverts yellowish-green. Throat below the black, breast, and outer edges of all the quills (except the first primary, and passing into white behind), bright greenish-yellow. Wings black. Tail-feathers black, with a white square patch on the inner web, near the end; outer edges grayish; quills black. _Female_ similar, with the black of the head replaced by ash. Length, about 4.70; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.30. _Young_ like the female, but wing-bands pale fulvous, instead of yellow.

HAB. Coast of California; Fort Whipple, Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 83).

HABITS. This species, now known to be so common throughout the greater portion of California, was first described by Mr. Cassin in 1850. Dr. Heermann afterwards found them very abundant throughout the northern mining regions of California, frequenting the hillsides covered with brush, the seeds and buds of which they eat with great avidity. Later in the season he found them at San Diego, in quest of grass-seeds on the level plains. They were in large flocks, and so closely packed that he shot thirteen at one discharge. Their nests, he states, are built in the fork of a bush or stunted oak, and are composed of fine grasses, lined with hair and feathers. They contain four or five pure white eggs.

Mr. Ridgway only met with this Goldfinch near the foot of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Dr. Cooper met with a few of this species at Fort Mohave, on the Colorado, but found them more numerous near the coast as far north as San Francisco, at least, and also in the more northern mining regions. He has seen them about San Francisco in December, and has no doubt that they remain all the winter throughout the lower country. They seem to avoid the mountainous regions, and have not been met with in Oregon.

Their habits and their song are, in general respects, similar to those of the Goldfinch (_C. tristis_), but their voice is much weaker, and is higher in its pitch. Their nests, Dr. Cooper thinks, are placed, in preference, on the live-oaks; at least, he has never met with them in any other situation. They are built very much in the style of those of the Goldfinch, but are much smaller, the cavity measuring only an inch in depth and one and a half in breadth. The eggs he describes as four or five in number, pure white, and measuring .80 by .46 of an inch. He adds that they sometimes feed on the ground, on grass-seeds, as well as on buds and seeds of various weeds and trees. They were regarded by him as more of a sylvan species than the Goldfinch, and not so fond of willows and other trees growing along streams and in wet places. In the Colorado Valley they feed on the seeds of the artemisia. He did not notice any there after the middle of April. Eggs, in my own cabinet, from Monterey, identified by Dr. Canfield, are of a uniform greenish-white, exactly similar to those of _C. psaltria_ and _tristis_, and measure only .58 by .45 of an inch, or less in length by .22 than as given by Dr. Cooper.

Three nests of this species obtained at Monterey, Cal., by Dr. Canfield, all exhibit more or less variations as to material and style of make. They are all more or less felted, and beautifully wrought, fully equal in artistic skill to the nests of the Goldfinch. They are about one and a half inches in height and three in diameter, and the cavity is an inch in depth and one and three quarters in diameter. The walls of these nests are soft, warm, and thick, composed of wool, both vegetable and animal, fine stems of grasses, down, feathers, and other materials, all closely matted together, and lined with the long hair of the larger animals. One of these nests is made up entirely of the finer grasses, strongly matted together.

Chrysomitris pinus, BONAP.

PINE GOLDFINCH.

_Fringilla pinus_, WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 133, pl. xvii, f. 1.—
AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 455; V, 509, pl. clxxx. _Fringilla_
(_Carduelis_) _pinus_, BON. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 103. _Linaria
pinus_, AUD. Synopsis, 1839, 115.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 125,
pl. clxxx. _Chrysomitris pinus_, BONAP. Consp. 1850, 515.—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 425.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 197.—COOPER, Orn. Cal.
I, 172.—SAMUELS, 290. _?? Chrysomitris macroptera_, DUBUS, Esq.
Orn. tab. 23 (Mexico).—BP. Conspectus, 1850, 515.

[Line drawing: _Chrysomitris pinus._
11096 ♀]

SP. CHAR. Tail deeply forked. Above brownish-olive. Beneath whitish, every feather streaked distinctly with dusky. Concealed bases of tail-feathers and quills, together with their inner edges, sulphur-yellow. Outer edges or quills and tail-feathers yellowish-green. Two brownish-white bands on the wing. Length. 4.75; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.20. Sexes alike. _Young_ similar, but the white below tinged with yellow, the upper parts with reddish-brown, and there are two pale ochraceous bands on the wing.

HAB. North America from Atlantic to Pacific; Vera Cruz, plateau and alpine region (SUMICHRAST, I, 550).

Specimens from all parts of North America appear to be the same, but there is a great deal of variation among individuals. No. 10,225 ♂, Fort Tejon, California, and 51,636, Colorado Territory, are almost entirely white beneath, the streaks being hardly observable. 32,765, Mexico, and 9,524, Washington Territory, are unstreaked medially. No. 11,096, Fort Bridger, has the streaks on the sides unusually broad, and very black.

In autumn and winter a reddish-brown tinge overspreads the upper parts.

HABITS. Though classed with the Goldfinches of this country, the Pine Finch, in many respects more nearly resembles, in its habits and nidification, the _Carpodaci_. It is found throughout the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the winter it extends its irregular migrations into the Central States, as far as Northern California on the Pacific, and Southern Pennsylvania on the Atlantic. It breeds throughout the British Provinces, Northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Michigan, and thence to Washington Territory, in all the evergreen forests.

At Calais, Me., it is resident throughout the year, and breeds there, but is much more common in the winter than in the summer. In Western Maine, Professor Verrill observed it very common, both in the spring and in the fall, but never found it breeding. He found it very abundant about the Umbagog lakes in July, where it was evidently breeding. It breeds also abundantly among the White Mountains.

Mr. Ridgway first saw the Pine Finch on the East Humboldt Mountains, where, through July and August, it was quite common, and where undoubtedly it breeds, as a young bird unable to fly was obtained. On the Wahsatch Mountains it was a very abundant species, inhabiting the pines as well as the groves of aspens in the alpine regions. It is gregarious at all times, flying in roving, screeching flocks. The notes it utters on all occasions resemble a very peculiar pronunciation of _swe-er_, given in a very sharp tone. When the flock suddenly takes to flight, this is changed to a more rattling outcry. A nest, containing no eggs, was found in an aspen-tree; and another, containing one egg, similar to those described elsewhere, was found in a fir-tree (_Abies_) situated near the extremity of a horizontal branch about twenty feet from the ground.

The Pine Finch is also a very common and resident bird in the plateau of Mexico and in the alpine regions of the State of Vera Cruz. Its common name there is _Dominiguito montero_. In the alpine regions Sumichrast states that it is found to the height of six thousand five hundred feet, and does not, to his knowledge, descend below three thousand feet. It most especially frequents the plateau.

Captain Blakiston met with this species on the plains of the Saskatchewan, near the Rocky Mountains, August 6, 1858.

In the eastern portion of Massachusetts it is somewhat irregular in its movements and appearance, which are supposed to be affected by the abundance or scarcity of its food elsewhere. Here it feeds chiefly on seeds of grasses and weeds, probably only after the seeds of the hemlock and other forest trees have failed it. They are usually most abundant late in the season and after heavy falls of snow farther north have diminished their means of subsistence. Mr. Maynard found it very numerous in the winter of 1859-60, remaining until quite late in the season, and again in the winter of 1868-69, remaining until the last week in May. In Western Massachusetts, according to Mr. Allen, it is a regular winter visitant, but never abundant. It arrives early in October, and may be seen in small flocks from that time to the third week in May. It sometimes frequents the apple-orchards, where it feeds on the _Aphides_. According to Dr. Coues, this species occasionally strays as far to the south as the Carolinas, but it is not common there.

Wilson observed these birds near Philadelphia, where they were feeding on the seeds of the alder. Later in the season they collected in larger flocks and took up their abode among the pine woods. In one particular locality, he states, a flock of two or three hundred of these birds regularly wintered, for many years in succession, where noble avenues of pines furnished them with abundant food throughout the season. Early in March they all disappeared. While there, they were so tame as to allow a person to approach within a few yards. They fluttered among the branches, frequently hanging from the cones, at the same time uttering notes closely resembling those of the Goldfinch.

In severe winters Mr. Audubon has met with the Pine Finch as far south as Henderson, Ky., and Charleston, S. C., but such visits were always brief. In August, 1832, he met with flocks of these birds in Labrador. They were in company with the Crossbill, and were feeding on the seeds of the fir-trees, and also on those of the thistle. When at the Magdalen Islands he frequently saw flocks moving from various directions. At Bras d’Or, towards the end of July, they were in great numbers, and the old birds were accompanied by their young. They frequented thickets of willows and elders in the vicinity of water, and were very fearless and gentle. According to his account they sing while on the wing, and their notes are sweet, varied, clear, and mellow, and, while somewhat resembling the song of the _C. tristis_, are perfectly distinct from it. Its flight is exactly similar, both gliding through the air in graceful and deep curves.

In Washington Territory Dr. Cooper found this Finch an abundant and constant resident, migrating to the coast in winter, where it feeds on the seeds of the alder. In summer they were gregarious, even when occupied with their nests and young. He has never met with any in California, not even in the Sierra Nevada, though they have been found by others along its whole western slope, as far south as Fort Tejon. They feed on the seeds of both coniferous and deciduous trees.

Early in May, 1859, a pair of these birds built their nest in the garden of Professor Benjamin Peirce, in Cambridge, Mass., near the colleges. It was found on the 9th by Mr. Frederick Ware, and already contained its full complement of four eggs, partly incubated. This nest was three inches in height and four in diameter. The depth of the cavity, as well as its diameter at the rim, was two inches. The base of this nest was a mass of loose materials, and the lower portions of the sides were hardly different. The upper and the inner portions of this fabric were much more compactly and neatly woven, or rather felted together. The outer layers consisted of small twigs of the _Thuja_, dried stems and ends of pine twigs, grasses, sedges, stalks of small vegetables, fine roots, bits of wool, and coarse hair. The whole was very closely lined with fine dry roots of herbaceous plants and the hair of small quadrupeds.

The eggs are of an oblong-oval shape, of a light green ground-color, spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with markings of a light rusty-brown. They measure .71 by .50 of an inch. They have a marked resemblance to the eggs of the _Linariæ_, but the ground-color is of a slightly lighter shade.

A nest of this species, found May 15, 1868, at Brunich, Canada, was composed almost entirely of pine twigs interlaced in a very neat and artistic manner. Its diameter was three and a half inches, and its height two inches. It was lined with hair. The cavity was one and a half inches deep and two inches wide.

GENUS LOXIA, LINNÆUS.

_Loxia, Linnæus_, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 758. (Type, _Loxia curvirostra_,
L.)
_Curvirostra_, “SCOPOLI, 1777.” (Type, _L. curvirostra_.)

[Line drawing: _Loxia americana._
5803 ♂]

GEN. CHAR. Mandibles much elongated, compressed and attenuated; greatly curved or falcate, the points crossing or overlapping to a greater or less degree. Tarsi very short; claws all very long, the lateral extending beyond the middle of the central; hind claw longer than its digit. Wings very long and pointed, reaching beyond the middle of the narrow, forked tail.

Colors reddish in the male.

The elongated, compressed, falcate-curved, and overlapping mandibles readily characterize this genus among birds. This feature, however, only belongs to grown specimens, the young having a straight bill, as in other Finches.

The United States species of _Loxia_ are readily distinguished by the presence of white bands on the wing in _leucoptera_ and their absence in _americana_. Neither form, however, is to be considered as specifically distinct from their European allies. The differences are as follows:—

Species and Varieties.

L. curvirostra. Wings dusky, without white bands.

1. Bill from forehead, .74; wing, 3.90; tail, 2.40. Lower
mandible much weaker than the upper. _Hab._ Europe …
var. _curvirostra_.[110]

2. Bill from forehead, .80 or more; wing, 4.00; tail, 2.50.
Lower mandible as strong as the upper. Hab. Rocky Mountains of
United States, and mountainous regions of Mexico … var. _mexicana_.

3. Bill from forehead, .60 or less; wing, 3.30; tail, 2.20.
_Hab._ North America generally … var. _americana_.

L. leucoptera. Wings deep black, with two broad white bands.

1. Body and head pomegranate-red; black of scapulars nearly
meeting across lower back. Hab. Northern North America;
“Himalayas”; “Japan” … var. _leucoptera_.

2. Body, etc., cinnabar-red; back nearly wholly red. _Hab._
Europe … var. _bifasciata_.[111]

Loxia curvirostra var. americana, BAIRD.

RED CROSSBILL.

_Curvirostra americana_, WILS. Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 44, pl. xxxi, f.
1, 2.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 426.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 198.—DALL &
BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 281 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1,
148.—SAMUELS, 291. _Loxia americana_, BON. List, 1838.—BON. &
SCHLEGEL, Mon. Loxiens, 5, tab. vi.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. California and
Oregon Route, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 87.—BON. & SCHLEGEL,
Mon. Lox. 5, pl. vi. _Loxia curvirostra_, FORSTER, Phil. Trans.
LXII, 1772, No. 23. AUD. Biog. II, 1834, 559; V, 511, pl.
cxcvii.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 186, pl. cc. “_Loxia pusilla_,
ILLIGER” (Bp.). “_Loxia fusca_, VIEILLOT” (Bp.).

SP. CHAR. _Old male_ dull red (the shade differing in the specimen, sometimes brick-red, sometimes vermilion, etc.); darkest across the back; wings and tail dark blackish-brown. _Young male_ yellowish. _Female_ dull greenish-olive above, each feather with a dusky centre; rump and crown bright greenish-yellow. Beneath grayish; tinged, especially on the sides of the body, with greenish-yellow. _Young_ olive above; whitish beneath, conspicuously streaked above and below with blackish. Male about 6 inches; wing, 3.30; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Northern America generally, coming southward in winter. Resident in the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains.

There are considerable differences both in color and size, especially of bill, in specimens from various parts of North America, and to a less degree from the same locality. While those of the Atlantic and Pacific coast have bills of much the same size, in skins from the mountains of California this member is much stouter; in this character approaching the _L. mexicana_ of Strickland, in which the bill presents its maximum of the North American form.

[Line drawing: _California_.
♂ 18034]

It would not probably be far out of the way to consider the European and all the American common Crossbills as the same species, differing only as races, and perhaps including _L. himalayana_, which is smaller even than _americana_.

We have not observed any American Crossbills with two reddish bands across the wing-coverts, corresponding to the variety _rubrifasciata_ of Europe.

_L. pytiopsittacus_ of Europe is much the largest of all the species, measuring seven inches in length, and with the bill seven lines high at base.

1. Loxia americana. ♂ W. Ter., 6442.
2. “ leucoptera. ♂ Philad., 1215.
3. “ “ ♀ Alaska (Yukon), 27360.
4. “ americana. ♀.
5. Leucosticte griseinucha. ♂ Unalaska, 54244.
6. “ littoralis. Ft. Simpson, V. I.
7. “ campestris. Colorado, 41527.
8. “ tephrocotis. Nebraska, 10255. Winter.
9. “ “ Colorado. Summer.
10. “ arctous. Siberia, 9244.
11. Pyrrhula cassini. ♂ Alaska (Nulato), 49955.
12. Pyrgita domestica. Europe.]

In the intensity, as well as the shade of the red in the males, there is a great range of variation. Generally it is of a tint almost precisely like that of _L. curvirostra_, though deeper. The most highly colored specimen is 54,795, Philadelphia (J. H. McIlvaine), which is entirely continuous deep tile-red, approaching vermilion on the rump. The abdomen and crissum are light pinkish. In No. 31,459, Fort Rae, April, the red is of a curious and very unusual purplish wine-red shade.

The average of western specimens, particularly those from the northwest coast of the United States, have bills scarcely larger than in the average of eastern examples; thus, 18,037, Fort Crook, N. Cal., has the bill of the same size as No. 5,803, Philadelphia, while No. 53,482, East Humboldt Mountains, has the bill smaller than any other in the collection.

In color, there are scarcely any tangible differences between the European _Loxia curvirostra_ and the two American varieties, the distinctive character being in the form of the bill and the size; the _C. mexicana_ is the largest of the three, and the bill is quite peculiar in form, the lower mandible almost equalling the upper in length, and exceeding it in thickness. _L. curvirostra_ is slightly smaller, and has the lower mandible much smaller and less, powerful than the upper, being inferior to it both in length, breadth, and thickness. The colors also appear to be rather less intense than in _C. mexicana._

The _C. americana_ is in every way, the bill especially, smaller than either of the preceding. The lower mandible, although but slightly shorter than the upper, is still much weaker, as in the European bird. The majority of western birds have the bill but slightly larger than eastern, and most of those with large bills are only intermediate between _americana_ and _mexicana._ In some specimens the bill, although almost equalling in length that of the latter, has yet the form of the former; on the other hand, there are specimens with the proportions of the mandibles as in _mexicana_, while the size is intermediate.

The following figures will illustrate the differences in the size of the bills of the different races.

1 Var. _mexicana_. 29703 ♂, Mexico.
2 Var. _curvirostra_. 17010 ♂, Europe.
3 Var. _americana_. 18036 ♂, California.
4 Var. _americana_. 5803 ♂, Philadelphia.]

Specimens from the Columbia River region and northwest coast of the United States appear to have the red more rosaceous and the bill more slender than the typical style. One specimen (No. 31,459, Fort Rae) is altogether a very peculiar one; the shade of red is different from that of any other specimen, being a dark maroon-carmine, with a clear ash suffusion on the back. There are two distinct dusky stripes on the cheek, one over the upper edge of the ear-coverts, the other along the lower edge. The lining of the wing is without any red tinge, seen in all specimens of the true _americana_ and _mexicana_; the wings and tail are pure sepia-brown, quite different from the others; and the feathers show no red margins. The lower mandible is very much curved. (May not this be like some Siberian style?)

No 21,868, from Washington Territory, has the bill nearly as slender as in _C. leucoptera_, but there is nothing else peculiar.

HABITS. The common Red Crossbill of America is a bird of very irregular distribution, abundant in some places at certain seasons, and again rarely seen for several years. It is a Northern species, found in summer chiefly in the more northern portions of the United States, and also found throughout the year in the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to Georgia. A closely allied variety is also found in the alpine regions of Vera Cruz and other departments of Mexico.

Dr. Suckley found this species quite abundant at Puget Sound, in certain seasons. This was especially so in the spring of 1854, though afterwards he met with but few. He noticed a pair on the ground near a pool of rain-water. They were very tame, and allowed a near approach. Dr. Cooper found it very abundant near the coast, where it feeds, in winter, on the seeds of the black spruce, retiring in summer to the mountains to breed, but returning in September. He never observed any in the fir forests of the Coast Range. In the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, Dr. Cooper found these birds in considerable numbers, September, 1863, and in winter they have been obtained about San Francisco. They seem to be most attracted to the forests of spruces, cypresses, and red-woods, the cones of which are most readily broken. They occasionally descend to the ground, in the Rocky Mountains, in search of the seeds of small plants, and also for water.

Mr. Bischoff obtained specimens of this species at Sitka, but it was not noticed in the territory of the Yukon River by Mr. Dall, or any of his party, and it was met with by Mr. Ridgway on the East Humboldt Mountains only. There they were occasionally seen among the willows and small aspens bordering the streams. Their common note was a fine and frequently repeated _chick-chick-chick_, very different from the plaintive notes of the _C. leucoptera._

In New England they are of somewhat irregular occurrence, though in Maine and in the northern portions of Vermont and New Hampshire they are more or less resident. In Eastern Massachusetts they are comparatively rare, excepting that, at irregular intervals, they come in large flocks during the winter. This was so to a remarkable degree in the winter of 1832, and more recently in 1862, when, Mr. Maynard states, they remained until April. They were then in their summer plumage, and also in full song. In August 1868, they again became quite numerous, and had just before appeared in large numbers in Western Maine, doing great damage to the oats, and disappearing as soon as these had been harvested. Mr. Maynard thinks that these birds were the same with those afterwards so numerous in Massachusetts.

The same peculiarities of irregular appearance have been observed by Mr. Allen, in Springfield, where it is often a very abundant visitor, but generally not so common. In the winter of 1859-60 the pine woods in the vicinity of that city abounded with them, and in February they were already in full song. They are at all times gregarious, and are sometimes seen in large flocks.

They have, as they fly, a loud, peculiar, and not unmusical cry. This call-note they do not utter when at rest or when feeding. Their song in the spring and summer is varied and pleasing, but is not powerful, or in any respect remarkable. This song is especially noticeable in caged birds, who soon become very tame, and feed readily from the hand, even when taken at an adult age. Their manners in confinement are very like those of the Parrots, clinging to the top of the wires with their claws, hanging with their heads downward, and, when feeding, holding their food in one claw. On the trees, their habits and manner are also said to be similar to those of Parrots.

Mr. Audubon has found these birds, in August, in the pine woods of Pennsylvania, and inferred that they breed there. This does not necessarily follow. They breed so early at the north as to give ample time for their migrations, even in midsummer, to remote places. Professor Baird, however, informs me that during a summer spent in the mountains of Schuylkill County, Penn., in the coal region, he saw them nearly every day, moving about or feeding, in pairs.

The Crossbills are extremely gentle and social, are easily approached, caught in traps, and even knocked down with sticks. Their food is chiefly the seeds of the _Coniferæ_, and also those of plants. Audubon’s statement that they destroy apples merely to secure the seeds is hardly accurate. They are extravagantly fond of this fruit, and prefer the flesh to its seeds. Their flight is undulating, somewhat in the manner of the Goldfinch, firm, swift, and often protracted. As they fly, they always keep up the utterance of their loud, clear call-notes. They move readily on the ground, up or down the trunks and limbs of trees, and stand as readily with their heads downward as upright.

Wilson states that in the interior of Pennsylvania this species appears in large flocks in the winter, and during the prevalence of deep snows they keep about the doors of dwellings, pick off the clay with which these huts are plastered, and are exceedingly tame and not easily driven off.

So far as is known, these Crossbills breed in midwinter, or very early in the spring, when the weather is the most inclement. The nest and eggs of this species were procured by Mr. Charles S. Paine, in East Randolph, Vt., early in the month of March. The nest was built in an upper branch of an elm,—which, of course, was leafless,—the ground was covered with snow, and the weather severe. The birds were very tame and fearless, refusing to leave their eggs, and had to be several times taken off by the hand. After its nest had been taken, and as Mr. Paine was descending with it in his hand, the female again resumed her place upon it, to protect her eggs from the biting frost. The eggs were four in number, and measured .85 by .53 of an inch. They have a greenish-white ground and are beautifully blotched, marbled, and dotted with various shades of lilac and purplish-brown.

Loxia curvirostra, var. mexicana, STRICKLAND.

MEXICAN CROSSBILL.

_Loxia mexicana_, STRICKLAND, Jardine Contrib. Orn. 1851, 43.—SCLATER,
P. Z. S. 1859, 365.—IB. 1864, 174, City of Mexico.—SALVIN, Ibis,
1866, 193 (Guatemala).

SP. CHAR. Colors of _americana_, but red brighter, more scarlet. Bill very large, the lower mandible nearly or quite equal to the upper in strength and length. Wing, 4.00; tail, 2.50; bill (from forehead) .82.

HAB. Mountainous regions of Southern North America, from Guatemala, north into Rocky Mountains of United States; Mexico, Orizaba.

This bird is quite as well marked as any of the plain-winged “species,” differing from _curvirostra_ and _americana_ quite as much as they do from each other.

All specimens from Mexico, as well as from the Central Rocky Mountains of the United States, are referrible to this form, though in winter the _americana_ may also be found in the latter region, as a migrant from the north.

HABITS. The occurrence of this well-marked race among the mountainous districts of Mexico is a very interesting and suggestive fact in regard to the distribution of birds, demonstrating, as it does, the close connection between high latitudes and high elevations as favoring similar forms. It was first described by Strickland from specimens obtained on the plateau near the city of Mexico. Another specimen is referred to by Mr. Sclater as having been received from Jalapa, Mexico; and Mr. Sumichrast obtained also a single specimen of this species at Moyoapam, in the alpine region of Orizaba, where it is known as the _Pico cruzado_. It was taken at an elevation of about 7,500 feet. Mr. Sumichrast was unable to determine whether this bird was resident, or only a migratory visitant in the winter. I can find no reference to any distinctive peculiarities of habits.

Loxia leucoptera, GMELIN.

WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

_Loxia, leucoptera_, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 540.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV,
1838, 467, pl. ccclxiv.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 190, pl.
cci.—BON. & SCHL. Mon. Loxiens, 1850, 8, pl. ix.—GOULD, B. Gt.
Britain, V, 1864 (killed England, Sept. 17). _Curvirostra
leucoptera_, WILS. Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 48, pl. xxxi, f. 3.—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 427.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 281
(Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 149.—SAMUELS, 293. _Crucirostra
leucoptera_, BREHM, Naumannia, I, 1853, 254, fig. 20. _Loxia
falcirostra_, LATH. Index, Orn. I, 1790, 371.

SP. CHAR. Bill greatly compressed, and acute towards the point. Male carmine red, tinged with dusky across the back; the sides of body under the wings streaked with brown; from the middle of belly to the tail-coverts whitish, the latter streaked with brown. Scapulars, wings, and tail black; two broad bands on the wings across the ends of greater and median coverts; white spots on the end of the inner tertiaries. _Female_ brownish, tinged with olive-green in places; feathers of the back and crown with dusky centres; rump bright brownish-yellow. Length about 6.25; wing, 3.50; tail, 2.60.

HAB. Northern parts of North America generally; Greenland (REINH. Ibis, III, 1861, 8); England, (September 17, GOULD, Birds Great Britain).

The white bands on the wings distinguish this species from the preceding, although there are some other differences in form of bill, feet, wing, etc. There is less variation in form and color among specimens than in the preceding. It differs from the European analogue, _L. bifasciata_, according to authors, in the more slender body and bill, and in having the body pomegranate-red, with blackish back, instead of cinnabar-red, as in _curvirostra_ and _americana_, Bonaparte and Schlegel quote the American species as occurring in the Himalaya Mountains, and perhaps Japan, but throw doubts on the supposed European localities.

HABITS. Both the distribution and habits of this species are probably, in all essential respects, the same with those of the preceding. It is, if anything, a more northern bird, and it has not been detected anywhere on the Pacific coast south of British America. It was found in the Arctic regions by Sir John Richardson, where the other species was not observed. He found it inhabiting the dense white-spruce forests of the fur country, feeding principally on the seeds of their cones. Up to the sixty-eighth parallel he found them ranging through the whole breadth of the continent. It is supposed to go as far as these woods extend, though it has not been traced farther than the sixty-second degree. It was found feeding on the upper branches, clinging to them when wounded, and remaining suspended even after death. In September they collected in small flocks, and flew from tree to tree with a chattering noise. In the depth of winter they retire from the coast to the thick woods of the interior.

A few individuals of this species are recorded by Professor Reinhardt as having been taken in South Greenland.

In Pennsylvania this species is much more rare than the _americana_, and Wilson only met with a few specimens. Since his day it has been found more abundantly, occasionally in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Mr. Dall states that these birds were not uncommon near Nulato in the winter. Several specimens were obtained in February and April. None were found there in the summer. He speaks of their great expertness in opening the spruce cones with their curved bills, and extracting the seeds.

Its appearance in Eastern Massachusetts is much more irregular both as to numbers and time than that of the other species. In the fall and winter of 1868 and 1869 they were uncommonly abundant, appearing early in the fall, and remaining until quite late in the spring. They were even more fearless and tame than the _americana_, and in one instance a pair were taken by the hand, and afterwards kept in confinement. They appeared around Boston in large flocks, and remained through April. One was shot in Newton by Mr. Maynard, June 13. It was found in an apple-tree, and its crop was full of canker-worms. In Eastern Maine it is resident throughout the year, and, like the other species, breeds in winter. In Western Maine Professor Verrill has found it a common winter visitant, but it is not known to be resident.

Near Springfield Mr. Allen considered this species a much less frequent visitor than the preceding. In the winters of 1854 and 1860 he found them very abundant, occurring in large flocks.

Mr. Audubon, on his way to Labrador in 1833, found these birds quite common, in May, among the islands of the Bay of Fundy, evidently migrating, on their way to more northern regions. I, however, observed none there during my visits in the summers of 1850 and 1851, although a specimen was afterwards obtained on the Murre Islands, on the 30th of June.

So far as they are known, the habits of this species are exactly similar to those of the preceding. They feed in the same manner and upon like food. Their flight is undulating and well sustained, and their movements in the trees are not perceptibly different.