196 CROSSBILLS. 



shaded with gray and yellow. It haunts "well-ordered 

 parks and gardens shady," flowering copses, dense shrub- 

 beries, and blooming orchards, where it carries on a quest, 

 as assiduous as that of Sir Lancelot after the Sangreal, for 

 grain, seeds, and insects. It is a robust and hardy bird, 

 and in the breeding season may frequently be seen engaged 

 in chivalrous encounter with the common sparrow. From 

 the fruity orchard-depths its song, during the warm days 

 of summer and autumn, resounds with a full and genial 

 note. 



The Lesser Eedpole is the smallest of the Passerine 

 birds, not exceeding, scarcely ever attaining, five inches in 

 length ; a fairy-like little minstrel, with a carmine-tinted 

 breast, yellowish brown back and sides, the under parts 

 brownish white, the throat of a velvety black, and the head 

 capped with crimson. It has a loud clear voice, and a 

 vigorous buoyant flight. In the winter it consorts with its 

 kind, and large flocks assemble in the birch and alder woods 

 to collect their daily meals of seeds. 



Tlie Crossbills seem to occupy a mid position between 

 the bullfinch and the bunting. They are plentiful in 

 Europe, but rare and irregular visitors in Great Britain. 

 Their favourite haunts are the fir plantations; but in sum- 

 mer they cluster about the gardens and orchards, and help 

 themselves freely to a banquet of fruit. They are brightly 

 plumaged birds, but their special characteristic is that cur- 

 vature of the extremities of the mandibles to which they 

 owe their names. 



