112 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



third time, before the first have flown. They are white 

 and unspotted. She makes a very slight nest of sticks, 

 hay, and sometimes of her own cast-off feathers. She 

 selects barns, old ruins, hollow trees, and crevices of rocks, 

 overshadowed by ivy or creeping plants. 



%, THE CROSS BILL. 



This bird lays four or five eggs of a white colour, tinged 

 with pale blue, resembling the colour of skim-milk, and 

 speckled with red, but only very sparingly. Her nest is 

 made of twigs, grass, and sometimes lined with a few 

 long hairs. She builds mostly among the branches of 

 the Scotch fir, the nest being generally close to the boll 

 orstern^ 2/u, ~u*M d ff-l f. 



