THE CROSSBILL 105 
firmly in both claws, as a hawk would a bird, extract the seeds 
with the most surprising dexterity and quickness. I do not mean 
to assert this to be their general habit ; but it was very frequently 
done when feeding on the larch. I have never seen them adopt 
the like method with cones of the Scotch or other species of pine, 
which would be too bulky for them to manage. Their method 
with these, and, of course, most frequently with the larch, was to 
hold firmly on the cone with their claws; and, while they were 
busily engaged in this manner, I have captured great numbers ; 
many with a horse-hair noose fixed to the end of a fishing- 
rod, which I managed to slip over their head when they were feeding, 
and, by drawing it quickly towards the body, I easily secured 
them ; others I took with a limed twig, fixed in such a manner 
in the end of a rod that, on touching the bird, the twig quickly 
became disengaged, adhered to the feathers, rendered the wings 
useless, and caused the poor bird to fall perfectly helpless on the 
ground. In this manner, in windy weather, I have taken several 
from the same tree, without causing any suspicion of danger. On 
warm sunny days, after feeding a considerable time, they would 
suddenly take wing, and, after flying round for a short time, in full 
chorus, alight on some lofty tree in the neighbourhood of the 
plantations, warbling to each other in low pleasing strains. They 
would also fly from the trees occasionally for the purpose of drinking, 
their food being of so dry a nature. To captivity they were quickly 
reconciled, and soon became very familiar. As, at first, I was not 
aware what food would suit them, I fixed branches of the larch 
against the sides of the room in which IJ confined them, and threw 
them a quantity of the cones on the floor. I found that they not 
only closely searched the cones on the branches but, in a few days, 
not onewas left in the room that had not been priedinto. I gave them 
canary and hemp-seed ; but thinking the cones were both amuse- 
ment and employment, I continued to furnish them with a plenti- 
ful supply. I had about four dozen of them; and frequently, 
whilst I have been in the room, they would fly down, seize a cone 
with their beak, carry it to a perch, quickly transfer it to their 
claws, and in a very short time empty it of its seeds, as I have 
very many times witnessed to my surprise and amusement.’ These 
accounts are most interesting, yet they are all equally defective in 
failing to describe the mode in which Buffon’s ‘useless deformity’, 
the crossed bill, is employed in the work of splitting open a cone. 
This defect is supplied partially by Mr. Townson’s description, 
quoted by Yarrell, and partly by the latter author in his own 
words. ‘Their mode of operation is thus :—They first fix them- 
selves across the cone, then bring the points of the mandibles from 
their crossed or lateral position, to be immediately over each other. 
In this reduced compass they insinuate their beaks between the 
scales, and then, opening them—not in the usual manner, but 
