THE CROSSBILL 109 



with wool and feathers, and sometimes a little hair. In this 

 nest the female lays four or five eggs, pale bluish- white in 

 ground colour, spotted with dark brown, and occasionally 

 streaked with still darker colour. Eggs of the Greenfinch are 

 absolutely indistinguishable from those of the present bird. 

 The eggs are often laid by the end of February or early in 

 March. I do not think that the Crossbill rears more than 

 one brood in the year, and the late nests of this species which 

 are occasionally met with doubtless belong to birds whose 

 earlier efforts were unfortunate. 



As soon as the young can fly, the families of Crossbills 

 begin their wandering life again, sometimes uniting into small 

 flocks, and for the remainder of the year are thorough little 

 nomads, with no fixed home, but appearing to hunt incessantly 

 for districts where their favourite food is plentiful. They 

 thus belong to a class of birds which ornithologists have very 

 aptly called " gipsy migrants." We have many of these birds 

 which pay us their uncertain visits from time to time, amongst 

 which may be mentioned the Snow Bunting, the Waxwing, 

 and the Shore Lark. These birds are migrants, but have no 

 settled winter home, and are constantly roving about, just 

 on the borders of the frost, flying north with open weather, 

 and coming south again with the returning frost. 



Much confusion and more difference of opinion exists as 

 to the extraordinary variation in the plumage of the Crossbill. 

 The question is too complicated for discussion here, but is 

 casually alluded to, as it still affords an opportunity for much 

 further investigation and research by naturalists favourably 

 stationed for observing this singular bird. 



