174 THE COMMON CROSSBILL. 



Habitat. In a wild state, the Crossbill inhabits Europe, 

 Northern Asia, and America. It frequents fir and pine woods, 

 but only when there are abundance of the cones. 



In confinement it must have a bell- shaped wire cage, of the 

 form and size adapted for a Canary. It may also be allowed 

 to run about, if a pine branch be provided on which it may 

 perch and roost. It cannot, however, be kept in a wooden 

 cage, as it destroys the wood- work with its bill. 



Food. Its food, when wild, chiefly consists of fir seeds, 

 which it partly extracts from the scales of the cones with its 

 bill, and partly collects from the ground. It also eats the 

 seeds of the pine and alder, and the buds and flowers of the 

 sumach. 



If kept in a cage, it may be fed on hemp, rape, and fir seeds, 

 or juniper berries. If allowed to run about, it is content with 

 the second universal paste. 



Breeding. Its time of incubation is the most remarkable of 

 its peculiarities, for it breeds between December and April. It 

 builds its nest in the upper branches of coniferous trees, of 

 thin pine or fir twigs, on which is placed a thick layer of earth 

 moss, lined within with the finest coral moss. It is not pitched 

 inside and out with resin, as some have reported. The female 

 lays three to five greyish white eggs, having at the thick end 

 a circle of reddish brown stripes and spots. The heating na- 

 ture of their food preserves both old and young from the effects 

 of the winter's cold. Like all Grosbeaks, they feed their young 

 with food disgorged from their own crops. They may be reared 

 on bread soaked in milk, and mixed with poppy seed. 



Diseases. The exhalations of a room have a bad effect on 

 these birds, so that they are subject, when in confinement, to 

 sore eyes, and swollen, or ulcerated feet. The country folk of 

 the mountains are simple enough to believe that these birds 

 have the power of attracting their diseases to themselves, and 

 are therefore glad to keep them. A grosser superstition adds to 

 this, that the bird, whose upper mandible crosses on the right 

 of the lower, or, as they call it, a right Crossbill, attracts to 

 itself the diseases of men ; and that a left Crossbill, or one whose 

 tipper mandible crosses on the other side, takes away the dis- 

 eases of women. In some districts, the latter birds are pre- 

 ferred, as having most healing efficacy. Simple people daily 

 drink the water left by these birds in their troughs, as a speci- 



