228 FEINGILLID^. 



in districts remote from orchards, they feed principally on 

 the seeds of various kinds of fir, which they extract from the 

 cone by the joint action of their beak and tongue. The alder 

 and other trees are also sometimes visited, and they have 

 been noticed to resort to thistles and pick the seeds from 

 them. "In the autumn of 1821," says Macgillivray,* 

 " 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 (mountain ash) 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 went 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 cluster of flowers in sunshine after rain." A writer in 

 the Zoologist -^ thus describes the manoeuvres of a flock 

 which he observed in 1849, in the county of Durham : 

 " On the 15th July, when taking a drive in the western 

 part of the county, where there are many thousand acres 

 of fir-plantations, I had the good fortune to see a flock of 

 birds cross my path, which appeared to be Crossbills ; so, 

 leaving the gig, I followed some distance into a fir-planta- 

 tion, where, to my great gratification, I found perhaps 

 thirty or more feeding on some Scotch £Lrs. The day being 

 fine, and as they were the first I had seen in a state of 

 wild nature, I watched them for about twenty minutes. 

 Their actions are very graceful while feeding, hanging in 



* British Birds, vol. i. p. 425. 

 + Vol. vii. p. 2527. 



