412 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



useful and powerful instrument. M. Buffon, who 

 only too frequently was guilty of attempting to 

 criticise the works of nature, and to do so according 

 to his own notions of what would have been best, 

 says, indeed, that the cross-bill cannot pick up small 

 objects with its bill; yet, on the contrary, it appears 

 that the bird can pick up the smallest seeds, and 

 even shell and bark hemp and similar seeds, with as 

 much facility as other birds. Cross-bills are found 

 chiefly in pine forests, where they live upon the 

 seeds of those trees. These seeds are contained 

 in the cones, concealed under tough woody scales, 

 which continue pretty close for some time after 

 the seeds are ripe. The peculiar form of the bill 

 now stands the bird in essential service. The ar- 

 rangement of the muscles moving it is such, that 

 the bill actually gains, by its very apparent defect, 

 the requisite power for breaking up these pine- 

 cones. This they can effect with great readiness ; 

 such is, in fact, the power of their bill, that they 

 can strip a piece of dry wood into pieces with 

 great ease and rapidity. 



The power of the bill in these birds was well 

 exhibited in a pair of them which were kept in 

 captivity, and of which Mr. Yarrell has given the 



