COMMON CROSSBILL. 237 



middle of February ; we have generally taken the first 

 eggs in March, and in the end of April we have shot 

 young flyers. They then appeared to leave us for the 

 summer, and we rarely saw them again till autumn. 

 That their periods of breeding are regulated by the 

 weather I do not believe, for a bird that can sit when 

 the snow lies deep on the forest, and the fir-trees are 

 covered (which is the usual case), would care little 

 whether the cold was a few degrees more intense than 

 usual." The same writer has also published in his 

 ^' Spring and Summer iii Lapland," a very full and 

 apparently most satisfactory account of the various 

 changes of plumage in this species. Macgillivray, in 

 the appendix to his " British Birds" (vol. iii., p. 704), 

 gives a description of the habits of these birds as 

 observed by Mr. J. M. Brown, in Scotland, in which the 

 following passage occurs as to their early nesting : — " I 

 was attracted one day in the end of February, during a 

 heavy snow-storm, by the peculiar chirping of nestlings 

 in the act of feeding ; and on ascending the tree found 

 five or six crossbills almost fully feathered and quite 

 vigorous, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, 

 snugly huddled together in a nest composed of small 

 twigs externally, and lined with matted wool. In mild 

 seasons I suppose they breed even in this country in the 

 month of January." Two other instances are also given 

 by the same author, in which nests were discovered in 

 March and the beginning of April. St. John, Yarrell, and 

 Hewitson in like manner refer to the same peculiarity, the 

 latter remarking that, "their early period of breeding may 

 account for what puzzled us at the time — our seeing the 

 crossbills whilst in Norway, during the months of May 

 and June, always in flocks, most likely accompanied by 

 their young ones." I have more particularly drawn 

 attention to this subject, and given the above extracts in 

 the hope that individuals who take an interest in such 



