THE FINCHES 125 



so, the pages in which they first appeared thus becoming, as so often 

 happens, at once their cradle and their grave. So it will be, I suppose, 

 with my own observations on the ruff, redshanks, blackcock, etc., in 

 relation to sexual selection (however important) or on the stone-curlew, 

 with its strange autumn "dances," or antics, and so on. "I wonder 

 that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick ; nobody marks you." l 



A bird that has always been supposed to feed its young exclu- 

 sively on the seeds of the fir, regurgitated from the crop, is the cross- 

 bill, yet, even in its case, a doubt would seem to obtain, since Ussher 

 and Warren saw the parents, in Ireland, flying to the nest with what 

 appeared to be the green early buds of the larch. If so, it seems 

 probable that these may also play a part in the regime ; and since, as 

 we shall see, the grown crossbill has not entirely dispensed with an 

 insect diet, at least upon occasion, it is not quite impossible that the 

 young may sometimes, if only to a slight extent, receive the benefit of 

 this also from their attached and indulgent parents. Few birds, indeed, 

 in matters domestic and conjugal, are more exemplary than these. So 

 closely does the female brood upon her eggs that she has ere now paid 

 the penalty of her maternal, and somebody else's scientific, devotion, 

 with her life. But should she escape so fatal a conjunction, she is 

 then, as we have seen, while so importantly occupied, faithfully fed 

 by the male, who, as he flies up, utters his call-note, a sharp "gip, gip" 

 which she answers lovingly, from the nest, with a soft "yup, yup" 2 



The rosy circling of the male crossbill above the nesting-tree has 

 been already referred to, and a few words may now be added on the 

 subject of that plumage to which this and similar epithets can be 

 applied. 3 I was not till quite recently aware that any naturalist really 



1 The foolish and even insulting idea that a clearly observed fact even when observed 

 repeatedly by the same person requires "confirmation" from somebody else, may have some- 

 thing to do with this discreditable state of things. Before anybody wants, or will take the 

 trouble, to confirm it, it is forgotten, especially should it happen to tell against any received 

 view, in which case there is a strong wish to forget it. Thus poor Sprengel lay for years in his 

 paper sarcophagus, till dug out of it, at last, by a stronger spade to wit, Darwin's. 



2 Ussher and Warren, Birds of Ireland. 



As, for instance, "rose-colour," "rosy red," "carmine," "rich crimson-red varied in places 

 by a flame colour," and so on. 



