

Crossbills at Breakfast. 189 



which are so seldom to be seen in England, were 

 now to be found in the lowest instead of the 

 highest pinewoods, in pairs or in small companies, 

 giving warning of their presence by a rapidly 

 repeated alarm-note. Generally they were on the 

 very top twigs of a pine, where it was difficult to 

 obtain a good sight of them ; but one morning 

 Anderegg's son, who is beginning to pick up his 

 father's powers of observation, detected a pair on 

 a pine below us, which both his elders had passed 

 by unheeding. They were breakfasting each on 

 the seeds of a cone, and I was able to observe 

 with the glass how admirably the crossed man- 

 dibles are adapted for cutting into the heart of the 

 fruit. The plumage of the male was a sober red, 

 less brilliant than it will be next spring ; and the 

 female's dull greenish colouring was hardly re- 

 cognizable against the pines. The presence of 

 these birds close down to the valleys denoted the 

 rapid approach of a cold season, and it became 

 plain that if I were to catch the southward migrants 

 I must hasten upwards towards St. Gotthard. 

 This I determined to do by the shortest possible 

 route, crossing the Susten Pass eastwards into the 



