CROSS-BILLS. 73 



the pine tribe, the cores of the buds of which they separate 

 very dexterously from the scales and turpentine. As the 

 bull-finches seldom attack the buds on the tops of even rather 

 low trees, they do not much disfigure the forests, and pro- 

 bably their pruning of the hawthorns may assist the hedger 

 in his labours ; but to the fruit-trees, especially one solitary 

 tree of an early sort, they often do very considerable damage ; 

 and as they slink away as soon as they are observed, other 

 birds are sometimes apt to get the blame. But they are birds 

 whose habits require a good deal more careful examination 

 than appears to have been bestowed on them. 



THE PINE GROSS-BEAK (Pyrrliula, enucleator). 



The pine gross-beak is a very beautiful bird, but it is of 

 such rare occurrence that it can barely be considered as a 

 British bird. I have been a good deal in the native pine 

 forests, and also in the extensive pine plantations in the 

 northern parts of Scotland, where, from the short distance to 

 the Scandinavian woods, where it is abundant, it would be 

 brought most readily by the winds, and I never saw the bird, 

 or met with any person that had seen it. These birds are 

 liable to considerable variations in their plumage, both with 

 the seasons and at different ages. At present, the detail even 

 of their appearance is not probably a part of British orni- 

 thology, though the numerous plantations of pines that have 

 of late years been made in the northern parts of Scotland, 

 may possibly bring them. They feed upon the seeds of 

 pines, and on those of alpine and arctic shrubs, and also 

 upon buds. 



CROSS-BILLS (Loxia). 



Cross-bills are another species of birds, natives of, and 

 chiefly inhabiting, the vast pine forests of the high latitudes. 



