706 APPENDIX. 



of the Water-Ouzel, when you chance to overhear his gentle 

 warbling, as he sits on a ledge of rock or ice, in a frosty day." 

 Mr Durham Weir, who has always exerted himself to the 

 utmost in obtaining from personal observation such facts as 

 were more especially required to give interest to these volumes, 

 has also supplied me with the following remarks. " About the 

 beginning of February 1839, I winged a female Crossbill, 

 which is now in my possession, in good health, and very tame. 

 It is an active and amusing bird, but at times rather an- 

 noying, from the loudness of its chirping. It is very mis- 

 chievous. By means of its thick bill, which is furnished with 

 very strong muscles, it has destroyed the framework of several 

 cages. It inserts this powerful instrument between the scales 

 of the cones of the different kinds of firs, opening them with 

 ease, and with great dexterity takes out the seeds with its 

 tongue, which is admirably fitted for that purpose. I have 

 seen it with its bill lift up to its perch, which is nine inches from 

 the bottom of the cage, cones of the spruce tree four inches in 

 length, and two and a half in circumference, and there keep firm 

 hold of them with its long and hooked claws, until it had ex- 

 tracted the seeds. What is still more remarkable, when the 

 perches were removed a few inches higher up, it had the saga- 

 city to carry the cones to the side of the cage, and raise them 

 up endwise against the bars, before it attempted to seize them, 

 which it afterwards did with its bill, when suspended head 

 downwards by the claws. One might have been almost in- 

 clined to believe that it could calculate to a nicety the distance 

 at which it was able to reach, and the strength required to 

 raise the cones. Like the Parrot tribe, it climbs along the 

 wires of the cage in different directions, by means of its bill 

 and claws, and often opens the door of it, although I fix it with 

 a piece of cord. When pleased, it utters a cry which has a 

 strong resemblance to that of the Blackbird, when that bird is in 

 a state of alarm. It feeds chiefly on hemp-seed, which it prefers 

 to all other kinds of seeds. It seems likewise to be fond of 

 walnuts, almonds, and filberts, the shells of which it easily 

 splits with its bill, if a very small hole be previously made in 



