32 
with the greatest facility. It lives mostly on the 
seeds of fir cones, in extracting which it shews 
great dexterity. 
The visits of this curious and interesting species 
to our shores occur at irregular periods, an interval 
of many years sometimes intervening without their 
making their appearance. The last occasions on 
which they visited our shores in considerable num- 
bers were in 1836, 37, 38, during which years they 
were generally distributed throughout the country. 
In the visits which they have made since those 
periods they have come in very limited numbers, and 
their presence has been confined chiefly to the north 
of Scotland, where they occasionally breed very 
early in the season. | 
The nest, which is placed in the fork of a branch, 
is composed of moss, lichens, &c., and lined with 
feathers. The eggs, four in number, are marked 
chiefly at the larger ends with irregular patches of 
dark red, and with minute spots over the other 
parts. 
The bill of the young birds is not crossed over 
till they are obliged to seek their own living; an 
arrangement which exhibits one of those beautiful 
provisions of nature under which the formative 
process remains suspended till the age and neces- 
sities of the bird require its completion. 
