168 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
Such a mixture of colors! The old gentlemen 
were the handsomest, being some shade of red, 
while their wives and children were olivaceous or 
grayish. They seemed like a shifting kaleido- 
scope of colors, as they hopped about busily hunt- 
ing for food. 
Among them were a few of their cousins, the 
pine finches, and I thought I heard some gold- 
finches with those that passed over. I got the 
pretty visitors a basket of grain, and scattered it 
on the crust for them, but they seemed to prefer 
cone seeds, for they soon flew over to the spruces. 
Unmindful of the laws of adaptation of which 
these bills are such an interesting example, the 
legend accounts for them in its own beautiful way. 
It has it that the birds tried to pull the nails from , 
the cross, and in doing so twisted their bills in 
such a way that wherever they go they will always 
bear the symbol of their merciful deed. 
The crossbills are very erratic in habit, and 
wander over large areas where they do not remain 
to build. They nest throughout the coniferous 
forests of the northern United States and Canada, 
and in mountains of the Southern States, notably 
in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. 
A curious example of this bird’s fondness for 
salt is recorded by Mr. Romeyn B. Hough. An 
old ice-cream freezer, after becoming permeated 
with salt, was thrown out where the crossbills had 
access to it, and throughout the winter flocks of 
