Identifier: natureneighborse02bant (find matches)
Title: www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Banta, Nathaniel Moore, 1867- Schneider, Albert, 1863- Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908 Abbott, Gerard Alan
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, American Audobon association
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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crossbill has been known tonest in the higher altitudes of Montana. Some years ago,while spending the early spring and summer in easternMichigan, a number of crossbills were wandering about alarge grove of pine and spruce. We hoped for an oppor-tunity to study the home life of a pair of these birds, whichhad begun to nest in a remote corner of the college campus,but a sudden rise in the temperature caused the crossbills tomake a hasty departure for the North. I was playing golf one August afternoon, when Inoticed a sparrow-like bird bathing in a pail of water. Iwas surprised to discover that the unsuspicious visitor wasa red crossbill. I could not account for his appearance inChicago at that time of the year, but the incident is inkeeping with the eccentric nature of the species. When feeding they have a short, whistled call-note;they take wing in a body, and their undulating flight isaccompanied by a sharp clicking or whistled note. Theirsong is varied and pleasing but not powerful.
Text Appearing After Image:
377 ■WHITF,-WINGED CROSSBILL.(Loxia leucoptera.)About y-i Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1901, BV A. W. MUMFORO, CHICAGO FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 309 THE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL* The common name Crossbill, or, as the bird is some-times called, Crossbeak, describes the peculiar structure ofthe bill, which marks them as perhaps the most peculiar ofour song birds. The bill is quite deeply cut at the base andcompressed near the tips of the two parts, which are quiteabruptly bent, one upward and the other downward, so thatthe points cross at an angle of about forty-five degrees.This characteristic gives this bird a parrot-like appearance. Their peculiar bills are especially fitted for obtainingtheir food, which consists to a great extent of the seeds ofcone-bearing trees, such as the pine, the hemlock, and thespruce. The two sexes vary in color, the body of the male beinga dull carmine-red, which is brighter on the rump, and thatof the female is brownish, tinged with olive-green and withbrownish-yel

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