CROSS-BILLS. 75 



a manner the most effective. When the two sharp points 

 are brought together, they can be entered into a very small 

 opening, in which, the instant that they begin to operate, 

 each takes hold like a hook, and tends to draw itself in ; 

 thus cutting open in the direction of the face or plane of the 

 scale, while by their action upon each other, they press it 

 open by the power of a double wedge ; and by the time that 

 the mandibles have crossed to their full extent, the scale is 

 so completely raised, that the seed can be taken from under 

 it with the greatest ease. The position into which the 

 oblique action of the bill brings the head, enables the bird to- 

 see the seed under the scale, and while the mandibles keep 

 the scale open, the tongue of the bird scoops out the seed. 

 The tongue is as curious as the mandibles. It terminates in 

 a horny gouge, supported by a bone and furnished with 

 muscles, by which it can be raised or depressed so as to act as 

 an independent instrument. The motion of the bill divides, 

 a soft and pulpy substance with remarkable facility ; and 

 when the birds visit orchards, which they are apt sometimes 

 to do in the autumn, they cut the apples asunder in order to 

 get at the pips, with almost as much celerity as one could cut 

 them with a knife. 



The season at which these singular birds breed, is another 

 curious trait in their character. They do not breed in the 

 depth of winter when the snow is falling, but they do it so 

 very early in the spring, that they must in some places have 

 nests, eggs, and perhaps even hatched young, before the 

 snow has wholly left the surface of the ground. With the 

 ground they have indeed little connexion in any of their 

 operations or excursions. Their food is in the trees more 

 abundant in the winter than in the summer : the second year 

 cones, which had been matured in the preceding season, are 

 then completely ripe and full of seed, and want only the 

 action of the mandibles to open them. The older cones have 



