708 APPENDIX. 



by their bills into strings, and different kinds of grasses. The 

 inside was lined with the strands of bass matting torn into fine 

 pieces, intermixed with moss and a considerable quantity of 

 human hair of different shades of colour, which had been picked 

 up by them before the doors of some cottages in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. The nest contained three young ones, which 

 were fledged about the beginning of May, and continued to fly 

 about with their parents for nearly two months. 



" In the beginning of April, at the distance of about three 

 hundred and thirty yards from the celebrated Wallace Stane, 

 in the parish of Polmont and county of Stirling, a pair of 

 Crossbills built a nest and reared their brood. The nest was 

 placed at the extremity of the lowest branch of an old Scotch 

 fir, nine feet from the trunk, and as nearly as I could gviess 

 about twenty from the ground. The tree was eleven yards 

 from the high road, upon which people are passing and re- 

 passing almost every hour of the day, and twenty-eight yards 

 from a cottage which was occupied by a labourer and his fa- 

 mily. While the female was feeding her young, the male 

 usually sat near her, and kept up a continual chattering. 

 They always flew off together in search of their food, uttering 

 their sharp shrill note, not unlike that of the Greenfinch, but 

 stronger. Upon Sunday afternoon, the 5th of May, whilst 

 some boys were in pursuit of their favourite amusement, they 

 unfortunately discovered the nest, and as they could not reach 

 it by climbing, they pelted it down with stones. It contained 

 three young ones about half-fledged. One of them was killed 

 by the fall, another was destroyed by a cat, and the third is still 

 alive. When about six weeks old, it was remarkably tame. 

 It crept upwards and downwards in its cage, both with beak 

 and claws, in the manner of a parrot, and occasionally at- 

 tempted to sing. The nest was larger than that of the Green 

 Linnet. The outside was chiefly composed of the old twigs of the 

 larch and Scotch fir, with fibrous roots and grass ; and the in- 

 side lined with fine moss and grass, and difterent kinds of 

 hair. 



" Since the month of November 1838, a pair of Crossbills 

 have frequented an old Scotch fir plantation upon the estate of 



