426 LOXIA EUROP^A. 



tliink. While feeding they keep up a continued shrill chatter, 

 and in flying from one place to another emit a sharp note. 

 Their flight is undulated, like that of the Buntings. 



M. Temminck states that they nestle at all seasons of the 

 year, in the forks of branches, laying four or five eggs of a 

 greenish-grey, of ^Yhich the large end is marked with a circle 

 of spots, lines, and dots of a red-brown. 



A very interesting account of the manners of this species, by 

 J. D. Hoy, Esq. of Stoke Nayland, Suffolk, is published in 

 the number for January 1834 of Loudon's Magazine of Natu- 

 ral History. — " From October 1821 to the middle of May 

 1822, Crossbills were very numerous in this county, and, I 

 believe, extended their flights into many parts of England. 

 Large flocks frequented some plantations of fir trees in this 

 vicinity from the beginning of November to the following 

 April. I had almost daily opportunities of watching their 

 movements ; and so remarkably tame were they, that, when 

 feeding on fir trees not more than fifteen or twenty feet high, I 

 have often stood in the midst of the flock, unnoticed and unsus- 

 pected. I have seen them, hundreds of times, when on the 

 larch, cut the cone from the branch with their beak, and hold- 

 ing it firmly in both claws, as a hawk would a bird, extract the 

 seeds with the most surprising dexterity and quickness. I do 

 not mean to assert this to be their general habit ; but it was 

 very frequently done when feeding on the larch. I have never 

 seen them attempt the like method with cones of the Scotch or 

 other species of pine, wdiich w^ould be too bulky for them to 

 manage. Their method with these, and, of course, most fre- 

 quently w4th the larch, was to hold firmly on the cone, with 

 their claws ; and, while they were busily engaged in this man- 

 ner, I have captured great numbers ; many with a horse-hair 

 noose, fixed to the end of a fishing-rod, which I managed to 

 slip over the head when they w^ere feeding, and by drawing it 

 quickly towards the body, I easily secured them ; others I took 

 with a limed twig, fixed in such a manner in the end of the 

 rod, that on touching the bird it became immediately disen- 

 gaged from it, adhered to the feathers, rendered the wings use- 

 less, and caused the poor bird to fall perfectly helpless on the 



