The Crossbill (JLoxia curvirostra, L.) in Ireland. 29 



inspect nests, the female would not remove beyond the next 

 tree, and soon returned when I descended. In no case did our 

 inspections lead to a nest being forsaken. When I climbed up 

 to one that contained young, the parent birds perched on the 

 same tree within four feet of me, uttering their note excitedl3^ 

 But the most singular instance of a Crossbill's boldness w^as 

 that of a female sitting hard on eggs, who not only would 

 not move, but bit the stick with which she was poked, and when 

 lifted off her eggs with it to see what was under her, held on 

 to the nest with her claws, and sank into it again w^hen the 

 stick slipped away. {Zoologist, 1889, p. 180.) 



The song of the Crossbill has most frequently been heard 

 from February to April. While the female was hatching, 

 the male has been seen shuffling and flapping his wings with 

 delight, flitting through the firs near the nest. He would take 

 a circuit about the group of trees singing on the wing, and 

 then perch on a tree-top continuing his song. I have also 

 listened to a male singing quite distinctly in October. The 

 song is quaint but usually harsh, and often consists of the 

 repetition of one note, followed by the repetition of another. 

 These are ver}^ diverse, and one bird will take up one note or 

 two, another bird another note, and continue using it. Thus 

 the burden of one song will be chit, chit, chit, repeated sharply, 

 and then a loud creaking note most like the twee-e-e of the 

 Greenfinch, but repeated more than once with gusto. These 

 sounds strike the ear at a distance. Then may follow "saw- 

 sharpening" notes, reminding one of the Great Tit, but not 

 uttered so loudly, and some low and sweeter notes ; or the 

 saw-sharpening may be the only song. Upon April 2nd, I 

 heard a Crossbill utter for some time a sound new to me, a 

 sort of twirr, like the chafing of a wheel or of a tightened 

 cord vibrating against something else. 



The Crossbill sits, while singing, on the leader or a top shoot, 

 but may continue his notes while fl3dng to another tree. The 

 song is oftenest heard early, before eight a.m. The ordinary 

 call-note can best be translated " gip, gip." This is uttered 

 in a very shrill key by the male, when, for instance, he conies 

 to feed the female, but she expecting him continues, though 

 hatching, to utter from the nest a different note like " 3Xp, 

 yep," or "yup, jaip," not so loud as that of the male. I often 

 hear this, evidently used as a call for food. A brood of 3^oung 

 birds when following their parents through the branches on 

 2ist Ma3% uttered an eager cry for food, like " chit-00, chit-00, 

 chit, chit." 



In February these birds usuall}^ pair. Of the five nests dis- 

 covered here the earliest was not commenced before March, for 

 on the loth the birds were carr3'ing the twigs of which the foun- 

 dation is formed, and on the i3tli the3' brought moss for the body 

 of the nest ; on the 20th I saw them stripping off bits of Scotch 

 fir bark, and apparently taking them to the nest. On the 20th 



