8 FRINGILLID^l. 



serving a considerable flock, suddenly, as if warned of our 

 presence by a sentinel, we entirely lost sight of them, so 

 completely had they concealed themselves among the 

 branches. On another occasion, having shot two pair from 

 the same trees, after closely searching every tree and not 

 perceiving the slightest movements, one of our party 

 climbed up to reach a bird that was lodged, when eighteen 

 or twenty simultaneously flew out of the same trees, utter- 

 ing their usual shrill cry. A bird-catcher informed me that 

 he had taken alive near one hundred and fifty during the 

 last summer about the plantations in the vicinity of Bath, 

 and that these birds were equally numerous seventeen or 

 eighteen years ago in the same locality. 



Apparently but very few instances of the nests of these 

 birds being found in any country are recorded, and even the 

 time of their breeding is not stated with much precision ; 

 Bechstein, indeed, says that neither their laying nor their 

 moulting has any fixed season. The editor of the last edi- 

 tion of Pennant's British Zoology, says, " I know but one 

 certain instance of the Crossbill breeding in England, and 

 that on a pine tree within two miles of Dartford, in Kent. 

 The nest, about the size of that of a Blackbird, was made 

 on the lowest fork of the tree, composed of dry twigs of 

 a loose texture ; however, no eggs were laid, for, from the 

 too great curiosity of frequent observers, the birds for- 

 sook it." Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, whose 

 account of these birds has been before referred to, says, 

 " Some eight or ten years ago, early in March, a pair made 

 a nest at the Audley End aviary, near this town, in which 

 the female deposited five eggs. The nest was of a loose 

 texture, not unlike that of the common Greenfinch, though 

 not near so well, or so carefully built ; the eggs also were 

 not unlike those of that bird, but larger ; they, however, 

 deserted them without making any attempt at incubation, 



