48 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



though I could find no fresh nest ; one I did dis- 

 cover at the end of a fir bough not forty yards 

 from their first venture, and which might have 

 belonged to them, proved later to be owned by 

 Greenfinches. 



The llth saw me once again in much 

 the same district, where I encountered but one 

 party of three adults. Otherwise, pairs, or 

 "singletons," was the order of the day. Beyond 

 a nest from which young had obviously flown 

 (how dirty, with their droppings, nestling Crossbills 

 make the edge and sides of their birthplace!) I 

 discovered nothing fresh. This nest was largely 

 felted together with dried grass and an abundance 

 of white fowls' feathers. 



On the 18th I saw but one pair of Crossbills 

 all day, and an empty nest in a typical position 

 which may have been theirs ; but on the 25th I 

 did find a Crossbill's nest containing two eggs. 

 Eventually it held five. This belonged, I believe, 

 to the pair which had young fledged close by there 

 between April 22nd and 25th, though it is to be 

 imagined that they had had an intermediate attempt 

 destroyed, as the interval was curious. That very 

 day I found yet another nest clearly the work of the 

 couple which had young hard-by on April 15th, 

 seeing that it was not twenty yards from the old 

 tenement. This held four young, not above three 

 days old. 



