ii2 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



This constant fluttering and falling would break 

 stiflrer and closer feathers than those of the crossbill. 

 As it is, the looser ones give way, while the stiff tail 

 and wing feathers do become ragged and broken. 



While the flock were at work the ' grove was quite 

 silent, except for the constant fluttering, and the 

 falling of the cones which they had detached by 

 accident or finished searching. So close were the 

 birds that they could be seen "husking" the seeds 

 when extracted, and it was noticed that their beaks 

 showed various degrees of length and crossing of 

 the mandible. In more than one the tips did not 

 project beyond the depth of the other mandible, and 

 it was only when the bird looked " full face " at its 

 visitors that the crossing was visible. About one- 

 sixteenth of an inch was the average overlap. 



The difficulty of extracting the seed by any other 

 means than those provided by the peculiar bill of 

 these birds must be very great. So tough and rigid 

 are the louvres of the cone that, unless they gape from 

 ripeness, the seed cannot be extracted without the 

 greatest difficulty even with a strong knife. Beyond 

 the fortification of these rigid louvres of wood, the 

 seed itself lies in a special little socket, in the very 

 core of the cone. According to Yarrell, the bird first 

 opens its beak until the points do not cross, this being 

 possible because the mandibles have some lateral play. 

 It then pushes this in like a wedge, wrenches the 

 mandibles crosswise again, and so prising open the 

 crack, extracts the seed. 



The seed itself lies at the base of a little wing, like 



