80 GRAMINIVOR^. 



upon the fruits of the deciduous trees and shrubs. They 

 come much more rarely into the cultivated places. In Bri- 

 tain they have never been seen so far southward as the 

 common cross-bills. 



It is worthy of notice that the cross-bills, which are to a 

 considerable extent the reverse of most other birds in their 

 time of breeding, are also the reverse in the change of the 

 male plumage. In most birds the mature and the breeding 

 plumage of the male are deeper, or at all events more entire 

 in their tints, than the young and the winter plumage ; but 

 so far as has been observed, the cross-bills are duller in their 

 colours both in the mature and the breeding plumages. 



