CROSSBILLS AT WORK 109 



now enjoy the benefit of complete protection by a 

 special Order made by the Secretary of State. Thence 

 small flocks now roam into different parts of the 

 island in early autumn. With one of these com- 

 panies of crossbills the writer was recently able to 

 spend a whole summer day, in surroundings which 

 made it possible to watch their "life and conversa- 

 tion " very closely. 



The flock of crossbills numbered twenty-three, and 

 were at once distinguished from other birds by their 

 flight, their notes, and by the brilliant red plumage of 

 the old cock birds. Even in the matter of colour the 

 crossbills are much more like parrots than any other 

 European bird, and their movements and way of feeding 

 suggest the same idea. Closer observation shows dif- 

 ferences ; but, on the whole, the resemblance is so strong 

 as to make a day with the crossbills suggest scenes 

 very different from those in which they were found. 



Three small groups of young pine-trees, from 12 

 feet to 20 feet high, were the attraction which drew 

 them to the spot. When disturbed in one group they 

 flew to the next, except at 10 A.M. and 2 P.M., when 

 the whole company flew off like a flock of snow- 

 buntings and rested in some oaks near. When feeding 

 they were so tame as to continue at work within a 

 few feet of those who watched them, and the trees 

 seemed full of the birds. They worked silently, the 

 only sounds being the fluttering of their wings as they 

 fell through the branches still holding a cone which 

 had broken as they were examining it, the dry rustle 

 of falling cones, and a husking sound, exactly like 



