30 The Irish Nahiralist. 



March, another pair of Crossbills were seen picking up sheep's 

 wool for their nest, in which the female was found hatching 

 four eggs on the 28th. The latest of the nests was being built 

 on 13th April ; on the 2otli the female was sitting ; on the 25th 

 I ascertained that there were four eggs, and on the nth May, 

 I saw the 3'oung birds in it. They were not feathered 3'et, but 

 had grejdsh-black down, m.uch the colour of black wadding, 

 giving them a very different appearance from the 3'oung of other 

 Passeres, Their enormous upper mandibles, overlapping the 

 lower, looked striking. On the i8th May these young had 

 left the nest, so that its story was completed within five weeks. 

 The five nests were all among the branches or tops of Scotch 

 firs. The first, now in the British Museum, South Kensington, 

 was near the termination of a large lateral branch, about forty 

 feet from the ground, on the borders of a plantation on the 

 hill slope. The nest was overhung or shaded by the luxuriant 

 tufts of the pine needles. This was the only nest that I inter- 

 fered with. Three other nests were in the tops of the firs 

 about the Giant's Rock, a hill-top ; and the fifth nest was in 

 the top of one of a group of stunted Scotch firs about twenty 

 feet high, on the summit of the Black Hill, 566 feet above the 

 sea, exposed to every v/ind that blows. They were all well- 

 concealed. One built against the leader, where a bend occurs 

 in it and several little lateral branches diverge, looked from 

 below like an enlargement of the crooked leader. Another 

 was built in a little bower or cage, formed by the divergent, 

 curving, smaller branches and tufts, at the culmination of a 

 main branch that grew upwards. The trees selected were not 

 in the heart of any mass, but on or near the margins of groups 

 of trees. The foundation platform of the nest, when present, 

 is composed of strong twigs of fir and larch, and is much 

 wider than the nest itself. The bod}^ of the nest is of dead 

 grass or stems, or of moss intermixed with wool and grass, 

 but no feathers ; occasionally a tuft of lichens occurs. A nest 

 from Sweden in Viiy collection, which wants the foundation, is 

 composed of tufts of fine hair-like lichen, mixed with a little 

 moss and strips of bark, Vv'hich are plentiful externally. 



The female when hatching was often observed to rise and 

 wriggle and turn round in the nest, though we had no snow 

 at that season. Mr. Nicoud imagined that this movement 

 was to shake off falling snow. {Zoologist, 1889, p. 71.) 



The nestling Crossbill, until after it is fledged, has the edge 

 of the upper mandible overlapping the lower on both sides 

 equall}^ but the point soon begins to turn on one side. One 

 that we caged near the nest was fed for nearly a fortnight 

 b}^ its parents. It was then in the vStriped plumage. When 

 taken in the hand it would try to bite, but did not flutter nor 

 struggle. It managed to open the door of its cage and was 

 lost. 



It is in June and July, when the young broods have formed 



