OF NATURE. 24/ 



their tongues, which are so long as to be 

 soiled round their heads. Whits. 



OROSBEAK. 



Mr. B. shot a cock grosbeak, which he 

 had observed to haunt his garden for more 

 than a fortnight. I began to accuse this 

 bird of making, sad havock among the buds 

 ■of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall-fruit 

 of all the neighbouring orchards. Upoa 

 opening its crop or craw, no buds were to 

 be seen ; but a mass of kernels of the stones 

 of fruits. Mr. B. observed that this bird 

 frequented the spot where plum-trees 

 grow ; and that he had seen it with some- 

 what hard in its mouth, which it broke 

 with difficulty; these were the stones af 

 damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this 

 bird coccothraustes, i. e. berry-breaker, be- 

 oause with its large horny beak it cracks 

 and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the 

 sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this 



