8 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



CHAPTER II. 



Stuffing the Crossbills. The proposed Yacht. An impaled Woodcock. 



FRANK led the way up stairs, and unlocking the door they 

 entered the room, and piling up some brushwood in the grate 

 they lit it, and soon had a roaring fire. The room now pfe- 

 sented a very cheerful appearance. A large window at one end 

 looked out over the glittering Broad. The room itself was 

 plainly furnished with a few deal chairs and a table, and at one 

 side of it was an old-fashioned bureau, in the drawers of which 

 the boys' natural history collections were stored. Around the 

 room were several shelves, on which were some very creditably 

 stuffed birds, flower-pots filled with mould and covered with 

 gauze bent over cane arches, the use of which will presently 

 appear, and a good number of books on natural history, chiefly 

 of a cheap and popular kind. 



Frank got out a box containing knife-blades of various sizes 

 fastened into handles of wood, two pairs of scissors, pliers, 

 and other tools useful or necessary for skinning or stuffing 

 birds ; while Jimmy Brett took down a book on birds, and 

 turned to the account of the crossbill ; and as Frank was busy 

 at one end of the table skinning the birds, Jimmy at the other 

 end kept up a running commentary on his book for the benefit 

 of his friend, in the following manner : 



" There is a lot about crossbills here, Frank. They are rare, 

 but they have been found at different times and in different 

 months of the year in many parts of the kingdom. They vary 

 greatly in size as well as in colour, according to age, sex, and 

 the time of the year. They are yellow, red, green, or brown 

 at different times, so if it were not for their cross bills it would 

 be rather hard to distinguish them. There are two pictures 

 of them here ; one has a rose-coloured back and red-brown 

 wings, and the other has a green back and brown wings. The 

 beaks curve and cross each other, and appear to be par- 

 ticularly suited for breaking open the cones of fir-trees and 

 picking out the seeds, and they will cut open apples and other 



