COMMOxN CROSSBILL. 21 



birds were equally numerous seventeen or eighteen years ago 

 in the same locality. 



Apparently but very few instances of the nests of these 

 birds being found in any country are recorded, and even the 

 time of their breeding is not stated with much precision ; 

 Bechstein, indeed, says that neither their laying nor their 

 moulting has any fixed season. The editor of the last edi- 

 tion of Pennant''s British Zoology, says, " I know but one 

 certain instance of the Crossbill breeding in England, and 

 that on a pine tree within two miles of Dartford in Kent. 

 The nest, about the size of that of a Blackbird, was made on 

 the lowest fork of the tree, composed of dry twigs of a loose 

 texture ; however, no eggs were laid, for from the too great 

 curiosity of frequent observers, the birds forsook it." Mr. 

 Joseph Clarke of Saffron Walden, whose account of these 

 birds has been before referred to, says, " Some eight or ten 

 years ago, early in March, a pair made a nest at the Audley 

 End aviary, near this town, in which the female deposited 

 five eggs. The nest was of a loose texture, not unlike that 

 of the common Greenfinch, though not near so well, or so 

 carefully built ; the eggs also were not unlike those of that 

 bird, but larger ; they, however, deserted them without mak- 

 ing any attempt at incubation, although I believe they were 

 perfectly undisturbed. About the same time, a pair also 

 built their nest in a garden in this town, on an apple tree, 

 but were shot before they had completed it." A more con- 

 clusive instance has been briefly referred to by M. Necker in 

 his valuable Memoir of the Birds of Geneva, in which it is 

 stated that a nest was made in a fir, the materials were grass, 

 moss, and portions of fir ; the nest contained three young 

 ones, covered with feathers, which were dark green, with 

 blackish longitudinal marks ; the mandibles not then crossed, 

 but like those of a young Greenfinch ; the parent male, red ; 



