44 FIELD-STUDIES OF BARER BIRDS 



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in gorgeous red habiliment, which, it is averred, 

 betokens that the bird is fully adult. If this be so, 

 then the Crossbill not only and obviously takes 

 nearly two years to gain its perfect plumage and 

 possibly longer, but also, at any rate on occasions, 

 breeds in half-and-half dress, since the male at one 

 of the nests I found was a brown bird merely 

 slashed with red on breast and rump, while cases 

 of males breeding in orange garb have been put 

 on record. It is significant that a good many of 

 these flocked males were singing capitally ; and 

 granted that these birds had not bred, and did 

 not intend to breed, it becomes then a fact that 

 only a small percentage of this ' ' irruption ' ' nested 

 at all, in Sussex at all events. 



The next entry from my diary of any import 

 bears date of May 3rd. From what I saw on 

 that and subsequent days up to the 25th, I have 

 every reason for believing that some few Crossbills 

 are genuinely double-, if indeed not triple-, brooded. 

 The books, I know, speak of the species as single- 

 brooded, but then some of the books also tell you 

 that many small birds (amongst which may be 

 mentioned Goldfinch, Linnet, Twite, Corn- 

 Bunting, Wood-Lark, Grey Wagtail, Meadow- 

 Pipit, Chiff chaff, Willow- Wren, and several of 

 the Warblers proper), which are almost habitually 

 double-brooded, only occasionally, or even never, 

 rear more than one family in the course of the year. 

 As a matter of fact, with about fifteen exceptions, 



