124 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
cones of the latter, and biting off the buds of the former. 
Their motions greatly reminded me of those of the 
parrot tribe; they climbed with equal facility, holding 
on by beak or feet, and twisting themselves round the 
boughs in every possible position, all the while uttering 
a shrill twittering expressive of satisfaction. They 
remained in the immediate locality for a day or two, 
but alas! only to meet the fate of rare birds, for they 
were so intent on their occupation that the whole of the 
flock—twelve males and three females—suffered them- 
selves to be shot. 
Other birds were killed in March of the same year at 
Rufford, and in the following April some were also 
killed in a fir plantation called Ollerton Hills. 
In the year 1849 Mr. H. Wells shot twenty-five on 
the firtrees surrounding the house of the late Lady 
Scarborough in the village of Edwinstowe. 
It is rather singular, as noticed by Montagu, that the 
mandibles of the crossbill do not always cross on the 
same side. A pair of the flock mentioned above, which 
I obtained from the person who shot them, vary in this 
particular, the upper mandible of the male crossing to 
the right, and that of the female to the left. 
In Macgillivray’s account of this species he quotes 
Yarrell’s description of a young one which was taken 
when only just able to fly, the mandibles of which were 
quite straight, the under just shutting into the upper, 
and then makes this curious remark: “ It then appears 
that until the crossbill has used its beak in extracting 
the seeds from between the scales of the cones of 
pines and firs, so as by the peculiar action which it 
employs in so doing to bend the tip of the upper 
mandible to one side, the curious crossing and elonga- 
