< GRAMINI VOILE. 



by that time either fallen from the trees or had their seeds 

 removed by the gross-beaks, and other birds which build late 

 in or near the same places. 



The scaly fruits of these trees give way sooner in the cold 

 northern countries than in places farther to the south, in 

 consequence of the intense cold of the winter, and the sud- 

 denness with which the heat of the summer sets in ; so that 

 by the time the weather becomes hot, the food of the cross- 

 bills, in the peculiar state in which it is their habit to seize 

 it, becomes less abundant. Then they move southward, 

 about the same time that the migrants, which have left the 

 north during the severe weather, are again arriving there for 

 the purpose of nidification. Their regular migration on the 

 continent of Europe, is along those districts where the coni- 

 ferse are abundant, in the whole line from the mountains of 

 Scandinavia to the Pyrenees. 



Whether they come to us in a southward migration from 

 the northern part of their continental range, by a northern 

 one from the southern, or are drifted laterally when on a 

 middle course, has not been very satisfactorily ascertained ; 

 but at all events their migration is irregular : and though 

 there is not perhaps a season during which a few are not 

 found in some parts of the country, the large flocks come 

 only occasionally, and at different times of the year in dif- 

 ferent seasons. Those which may be considered as the more 

 regular migrants come in May or June, and when they land 

 on the eastern side of the island, their progress is northward, 

 so that they may possibly reach the forests of Norway and 

 Sweden by the time that the cold weather has set in, or 

 rather after the first and violent falls of snow, and when the 

 winter has become tranquil, and they can set about the con- 

 structing of their mossy nests. 



Those which visit the south of England, are either more 

 numerous or have been more carefully observed towards the 



