MARCH. 53 



male, and the curved mark near the eye was visible only 

 by a slightly darker shade. 



C. — The common Crossbill ( Curvirostra Ame7'icana) is 

 a pretty bird, and seems to be a general favourite : probably 

 because, like the Redbreast of our own country, he manifests 

 such a saucy familiarity with us ; hardly making room for 

 us to pass by, and immediately returning to his picking at 

 the dish- washings of the sink, or the scraps of the kitchen. 

 Perhaps too, we prize him more, because birds are now 

 scarce, and he reminds us of brighter and sunnier days. 



F, — When I was in Newfoundland, a friend one winter's 

 day knocked a Crossbill from the summit of a young pine, 

 which proving to be only stunned, we put into a cage. He 

 became immediately very familiar, and much amused us 

 by his tricks, crawling about the inside of his cage, and 

 even from the roof, like a parrot, grasping the wires with his 

 claws, and using his bill as a third foot, to help himself along. 

 After a few days we opened his cage, but he did not ap- 

 pear to have pined much for liberty, for he crawled out and 

 in for some considerable time before he brought himself to 

 bid adieu to his wiry home. The very remarkable conform- 

 ation of the bill in this genus has been, by purblind philoso- 

 phists, stigmatized as a defective organization ; but in reality 

 it is peculiarly adapted, like all the other works of the all- 

 wise and benevolent God, to the purposes for which it is 

 designed ; its mode of obtaining its food being as follows : — 

 The seeds of the coniferous trees, on which it principally 

 subsists, are concealed beneath hard, woody scales, lying 

 tightly and closely on each other. The bird, bringing the 

 tips of the mandibles together, inserts the united points be- 

 neath the scale, then separating the points, forces it out- 

 wards, and extracts the seed. 



C. — What other birds are to be met with at this season ? 



f . — I believe I saw the Pine Finch (Fringilla Pinus) 



