THE CROSSBILL 105 



firmly in both claws, as a hawk would a bird, extract the seeds 

 with the most siirjnising 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 quicldy 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 I 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 one was left in the room that had not been pried into. 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 YaiTell, and partly by the latter author in his own 

 words. ' Their mode of operation is thus : — ^They lirst 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 



