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May, 1910 NOTES ON THE NORTHWESTERN CROSSBILL 91 they will come onto the ciW lawns and pick up the nuts right at ones feet, and I have had them come down and drink where I was watering the lawn. They are especially fond of salt, and a large flock of them was frequenting the salt-licks at the head of the Middle Weiser River, Idaho, when I was there some years since. They will eat the soil for the salt wherever they can find it. The nest is built of dead tamarack twigs for a foundation and outer walls, in- terwoven with much dry fine grass and a few dry pine needles. The lining is an abundance of long, black moss from tamarack trees, and a few soft feathers, mak- ing a good, warm nest, placed in the divergent small branches of a horizontal branch from four to eight feet out from the tree-trunk. One was directly in the center of a heavy bunch of long needles at the very tip of a ninety-foot pine and Fig. 27. NES? O} ? ?HE RED CROSSBILL was so concealed by the denseness of the growth that the nest was not visible. The climber begged to come down, believing there was no nest there, but I had spent too many hours locating it to come away without it. It was no mean task to secure this nest, but my climber is an expert lineman. All these nests were built among the needles, so as to be perfectly concealed, and if the bird did not re- veal the place, it would be impossible to locate it. All the nests were in pines and next to inaccessible. Measurements for one nest are sufficient, as they are as like as peas in a pod. Outside diameter, four by five inches; inside, two and one-half. Outside depth, three; inside, one and one-half. With the settings it is very artis- tic. The photos show how well hidden the nests are. There are three sets of these pretty eggs before me, with their respective nests.