196 FRINGILLIDvE. 



from its younger members sufficient to keep tlie troop 

 together.* 



From what has just been stated it will be perceived that 

 the seeds of various conifers — pines, firs and larches — nowa- 

 days supply the chief food of this species, but besides the 

 pips of apples to which reference has been already made, 

 the seeds of the rowan, or mountain-ash, appear from the 

 observations of Macgillivray and Saxby to be at times laid 

 under contribution. The berries of this tree it will even 

 follow to the ground if it fails to secure the bunch at the first 

 intention. The Editor has more than once known the buds 

 of the elm to be eaten by the Crossbill and that at a season 

 when they cannot be sought, as Saxby states they are in 

 Shetland, for the sake of the aphides which gather on the 

 underside of the leaves of this tree, though he is no doubt 

 right in saying that such insects and those which infest the 

 sycamore are greedily devoured by it. In confinement the 

 bird soon becomes tame, and is a most amusing subject of 

 observation, climbing like a Parrot with the help of its bill 

 in any direction.! Introduced to hempseed, the Crossbill, like 

 most birds, quickly takes to that attractive diet, shelling each 

 seed deftly with the cutting edges of its mandibles, but even 

 then its fondness for the seeds of the Coniferce is not forgotten. 

 Its efforts to free itself from captivity are so unceasing that 

 a cage of very hard wood or of well-riveted metal is needed 



* A most faithfiil account of the habits of the Crossbill was furnished to the 

 Author by Mr. R. F. Wright of Hinton Blewit in Somerset, and printed at 

 length in former editions of this work. So much has since been written on the 

 subject, that it seems unnecessary at this time to give the words of this communica- 

 tion, the important parts of which are incorporated with other information in the 

 above paragraph. In like manner it would be but a repetition here to insert 

 the notice, formerly introduced, of a flock of Crossbills seen by Macgillivray (Br. 

 B. i. p. 425), graphic and excellent as it is. The chief fact of which he was a 

 witness will be immediately mentioned in the text. Owing to the wide range 

 of the Crossbill in England there must now be but few ornithologists in the 

 country who have not had the oi^portunity of personally obsei-ving it. 



t This peculiarity, together with that of their holding in their foot the fruit 

 from which they are extracting the seeds, has led some naturalists to consider the 

 Crossbills allied to the Psittaci, and their representatives in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, a belief to which very slight knowledge of Comparative Anatomy gives a 

 positive denial. 



