CROSSBILLS 85 



bills were forced hither by stress of weather in 

 February. One male, in fine feather, was shot out 

 of a flock of five or six, near Keynsham, in Somerset, 

 and another out of a small flock of the commoner 

 kind at Enniskillen. 



There is a peculiarity in the plumage of this 

 showy bird which often has caused disappointment 

 to collectors, and occasionally brings indoor natural- 

 ists to ludicrous disaster. The glowing crimson 

 of the head, neck, and shoulders fades rapidly after 

 death, so that the stuffed crossbills in museums give 

 a very misleading idea of the appearance of the 

 living creature. See how neatly Mr. J. W. Tutt 

 has walked into this trap in his Chats about British 

 Birds lately published. It* is one of a kind of 

 book with which we are all painfully familiar, 

 written up to illustrations which have done duty 

 many times before. 



1 The Common Crossbill,' says this great authority, ' is a 

 remarkable bird ; . . . many have doubted that it nested 

 in the British Islands, although the presence of very young 

 birds in their striking juvenile plumage of dark green has 

 been very strong prima facie evidence of their having done 

 so. As they get older, they become of a dull brown colour, 

 but when they get r the adult plumage are of a quite bright 

 greenish-yellow mixed with brown and purer yellow* 



Good Mr. Tutt ! he has described very fairly Hhe 



