PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 79 



4. Nest and Eggs. Nesting place : always in holes or hollows of some kind, 

 in trees, buildings, walls, sandpits, cliffs. Nest : dry grass, roots, straw, wool, 

 lined chiefly with feathers. (Pis. 10 and v.) It is constructed by both sexes (Bailly, 

 Orniih. de la Savoie ; S. E. Brock, in litt.}. The eggs, usually 4-6 in number, 

 resemble those of the house-sparrow, but besides being smaller are much more 

 glossy and more heavily marked. They are also darker and show more brown as a 

 rule. Often one (sometimes two) eggs are much lighter than the rest. (PI. B.) 

 Average size of 103 eggs, *77 x "55 in. [19*5 x 14 mm.]. Laying begins usually 

 in May, exceptionally earlier. According to Naumann both sexes incubate. 

 Period of incubation 13-15 days (Bailly, op. cit. ; Gadeau de Kerville, Faune de 

 la Normandie). Two to three broods. [F. c. B. j. F. B. K.] 



5. Food. Same as the house-sparrow. The young are fed on insects, soft 

 vegetables, etc. (H. Saunders). Both sexes share in the duty (Bailly, op. cit. ; 

 F. E. Daniel, in litt. ; N. H. Foster in the Irish Naturalist, 1906, p. 221). [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. The pairing season (W. H. Hudson, British Birds). 



CROSSBILL [Loxia curvirostra, Linnaeus. French, bec-croise ; German, 

 Kreuzschnabel ; Italian, crociere]. 



1. Description. Recognised by the crossed tips of the bill. Length 6 in. 

 [165 mm.]. The plumage of the fully adult male is mostly crimson, with a touch 

 of orange, the female yellowish green. (PI. 8.) The young up to the first 

 autumn moult are mostly smoke-brown above, dull white below with dusky 

 striations, there being little difference between the sexes. The mandibles do 

 not begin to cross till about the time the bird quits the nest. After the 

 autumn moult the young are still striped, the males being tinged with orange, 

 the females with yellow, on the underparts, head, and rump. After the second 

 moult red mixes with the yellow in the males, there being remains of spots 

 and striations above and below. The coloration of individual males at this 

 stage varies considerably, the full red not being attained till the third or fourth 

 year. Adult males, especially in captivity, sometimes retain the yellow or 

 revert to it hi old age. (The description of the young is based on those of Wheel- 

 wright (Zool., 1870, p. 2236) and V. Fatio (Oiseaux de la Suisse). [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. If we take all the subspecies together we find that 

 Loxia curvirostra, as a whole, is widely distributed throughout the Palaearctic 

 and northern Nearctic Regions, wherever there are coniferous forests. In the 

 British Isles we have two forms, the Scottish crossbill, L. curvirostra scotica, Hartert, 



