COMMON CROSSBILL AND PARROT CROSSBILL. 33 
they meet a similar family-party they appear to fraternize at once, and 
form the nucleus of a flock, which is sometimes seen far from home as 
early as June, wandering in search of food. It is a very pretty sight to 
see these flocks feeding upon the berries of the mountain-ash, or stripping 
the larch or spruce trees of their cones. In winter they are exceedingly 
tame, and will allow the observer to approach very near and watch them 
without showing any signs of alarm. They are very active, and when 
busily engaged in feeding place themselves in all sorts of positions, like 
a Tit or a Willow-Wren. They pass from tree to tree with strong 
but undulating flight, continually calling to each other. In late winter 
or early spring the males have a low warbling song, which reminds one 
somewhat of that of the Starling. The female is said also to sing nearly 
as well as the male. 
The note is short and clear, aloud shrill ¢tstp, tsip, tsip, far louder than 
the similar notes of the Chaffinches and Linnets by which it is surrounded ; 
it is subject to slight modulations, occasionally sounding almost like. ¢sup, 
and sometimes like ¢sop. This note is principally uttered when the birds 
are on the wing, and is apparently the common call-note by which the 
flock is kept together. The call-note of the male to the female is quite as 
loud, but more prolonged; it may be represented by the word ftso, 
occasionally modified almost to ¢sow on the one hand and to ¢soo on the 
other. I hav: generally heard this note when the bird was sitting alone on 
or near the top of a pine tree. The valleys of the Upper Engadine are an 
excellent locality in which to watch the habits of the Crossbill; they lie 
about six thousand feet above the level of the sea, and are hemmed in by 
mountains which rise to twice that height. Whenever the ground is 
smooth enough it is used as meadow, and where it is rocky it is covered 
up to the mouth of the glaciers with larch trees intermixed with a few 
spruce-firs and Siberian cedars (Pinus cembra). It is impossible to walk 
through the forest from Pontresina to St. Moritz, even in August and 
September (a time of the year when birds are most skulking in their habits 
and almost silent), without seeing many birds specially interesting to the 
British ornithologist. At first, perhaps, the forest may look empty, not a 
bird to be seen or heard ; for at this season forest-birds are not only gre- 
garious but social, and you may perhaps have to walk a mile before you 
meet with the flock. Then all at once you hear the call-notes of Titmice 
and distinguish the Crested Tit and the continental variety of the Marsh- 
Tit. Amongst them may be a few Chaflinches and Mealy Redpoles, and 
almost certainly a pair of Nuthatches and Creepers. The main flock will 
consist of Thrushes, principally Missel-Thrushes, feeding on the bilberries 
and other ground-fruit, and rising one by one from the ground as you 
disturb them. Then you may come across a small party of Nutcrackers, 
which are not nearly so shy as the Thrushes, and may be seen both in the 
VOL. II. D 
