EUROPEAN CROSSBILL. 425 



vourite food. Several yecars may elapse without their being 

 heard of in a large district, when suddenly they arrive often in 

 great flocks ; and this at no particular season, for I have re- 

 ceived recent specimens in November, February, March, the 

 beginning of June, and October, and have seen them flying 

 about in August. 



In the autumn of 1821, when walking from Aberdeen to Elgin, 

 by the way of Glenlivat and along the Spey, I had the pleasure 

 of observing, near the influx of a tributary of that river, a flock 

 of several hundreds of Crossbills busily engaged in shelling the 

 seeds of the berries which hung in clusters on a clump of rowan- 

 trees. So intent were they on satisfying their hunger that they 

 seemed not to take the least heed of me ; and, as I had not a 

 gun, I was content with gazing on them, without offering them 

 any molestation. They clung to the twigs in all sorts of posi- 

 tions, and w^ent through the operation of feeding in a quiet 

 and business-like manner, each attending to his own affairs, 

 without interfering with his neighbours. It was indeed a 

 pleasant sight to see how the little creatures fluttered among 

 the twigs, all in continued action, like so many bees on a clus- 

 ter of flowers in sunshine after rain. Their brilliant colours, 

 so much more gaudy than those of our common birds, seemed 

 to convert the rude scenery around into that of some far dis- 

 tant land, where the Redbird sports among the magnolia 

 flowers. In that year, flocks of these birds were observed in 

 various parts of Scotland ; but although I have obtained nu- 

 merous specimens in a recent state, I have not since had an 

 opportunity of seeing living individuals. 



Their ordinary food consists of the seeds of the Scotch fir, 

 larch, and other pines ; and in the crops of aU those which I 

 have examined, I have found shelled seeds apparently of the 

 first of these trees. In the gizzards were also sand, and small 

 particles of quartz, to obtain which they must of course de- 

 scend to the ground. Wilson and Audubon state that the 

 American Crossbill often alights, during deep snow, before the 

 door of the hunter, and around his house, to pick off" the clay 

 with which the logs are plastered, doubtless in search of sand 

 or pupae, and not to use it as food, as these authors seem to 



