406 THE CROSSBILL. 



bush has thus been completely disbudded, and yet borne a heavy crop 

 of fruit. The reason of this curious phenomenon may probably be 

 that some of the buds were attacked by insects, and that the kind of 

 pruning process achieved by the Bullfinch was beneficial rather than 

 liurtful to the plant. 



The Bullfinch afibrds a curious instance of the change wrought by 

 domestication. In its natural state its notes are by no means remark- 

 able, but its memory is so good, and its powers of imitation so singu- 

 lar, that it can be taught to pipe tunes with a sweet and flute-like in- 

 tonation, having some of that peculiar " woody " quality that is ob- 

 servable in the flute. 



Those who desire to find the nest of the Bullfinch must search in the 

 thickets and most retired parts of woods or copses, and thfey may per- 

 haps find the nest hidden very carefully away in some leafy branch at 

 no great height from the ground. A thick bush is a very favorite spot 

 for the nest, but I have more than once found one in hazel branches so 

 slender that the mere weight of the nest has bent them aside. The eggs 

 are very prettily marked with deep violet and purple-brown streaks 

 and mottlings upon a greenish white ground, and are easily recogniza- 

 ble by the more or less perfect ring which these form round the larger 

 end of the egg. The egg^ are geucsrally five in number. 



The Crossbills, of which three species are known to inhabit Eng- 

 land, are most remarkable birds, and have long been celebrated on ac- 

 count of the singular form 

 of beak from which they 

 derive their name. 



In all these birds the 

 two mandibles completely 

 CDss each other, so that 

 at first sight the struc- 

 ture appears to be a mal- 

 formation, and to prohibit 



,p ^, ,^ , '^^^ the bird from picking up 



The Crossbill {Lona a^vimstris). g,,^^ ^^ f^^^i/^ .^J^ i|^ 



any way. But when the Crossbill is seen feeding it speedily proves 

 Itself to be favored with all the ordinary faculties of birds, and to 

 be as capable of obtaining its food as are any of the straight-beaked 

 birds. *^ ^ 



The food of the Crossbill consists to a great extent, if not exclusively, 

 of seeds, which it obtains in a very curious manner. It is very fond of 

 ai)ple-pips, and, settling on the tree where ripe apples are to be found, 

 attacks the fruit with its beak, and in a very few moments cuts a hole 

 tairly mto the "core," from which it daintily picks out the seeds and 

 eats them, rejectmg the ripe pulpy fruit in which they had been en- 



