CHAPTER EIGHT BIRDS &> REPTILES 



WHILST walking through the extensive 

 fir and larch woods in this neighbour- 

 hood, I am often much amused by the pro- 

 ceedings of those curious little birds the 

 cross-bills. They pass incessantly from tree to tree with a 

 jerking quick flight in search of their food, which consists of 

 the seeds of the fir and larch. They extract these from the 

 cones with the greatest skill and rapidity, holding the 

 cone in one foot, and cutting it up quickly and thoroughly 

 with their powerful beak, which they use much after the 

 manner of a pair of scissors. When the flock has stripped 

 one tree of all the sound cones, they simultaneously take 

 wing, uttering at the same time a sharp harsh chattering 

 cry. Sometimes they fly off to a considerable height, and 

 afterwheeling about for a short time, suddenly alight again 

 on some prolific-looking tree, over which they disperse 

 immediately, hanging and swinging about the branches 

 and twigs, cutting off the cones, a great many of which 

 they fling to the ground, often with a kind of impatient 

 jerk. These cones, I conclude, are without any ripe seed. 

 They continue uttering a constant chirping while in search 

 of their food on the branches. I have never succeeded in 

 finding the nest of the crossbill, though I am confident that 

 they breed in this country, having seen the birds during 

 every month of the year, so that either some barren ones 

 must remain, or they hatch their young here. The nest has 

 been described to me as placed at a considerable height 

 from the ground, at the junction of some large branch with 

 the main stem. 



The crossbill itself is a busy, singular-looking little fel- 

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