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.