8 FRINGILLIDjE. 



but not feeding. While with some friends observing a 

 considerable flock, suddenly, as if warned of our presence 

 by a sentinel, we entirely lost sight of them, so completely 

 had they concealed themselves among the branches. On 

 another occasion, having shot two pair from the same trees, 

 after closely searching every tree and not perceiving the 

 slightest movements, one of our party climbed up to reach a 

 bird that was lodged, when eighteen or twenty simultane- 

 ously flew out of the same trees, uttering their usual shrill 

 cry. A bird-catcher informed me that he had taken alive 

 near one hundred and fifty during the last summer about 

 the plantations in the vicinity of Bath, and that these birds 

 were equally numerous seventeen or eighteen years ago in 

 the same locality. 



Apparently but very few instances of the nests of these 

 birds being found in any country are recorded, and even the 

 time of their breeding is not stated with much precision ; 

 Bechstein, indeed, says that neither their laying nor their 

 moulting has any fixed season. The editor of the last edi- 

 tion of Pennant's British Zoology, says, " I know but one 

 certain instance of the Crossbill breeding in England, and 

 that on a pine tree within two miles of Dartford in Kent. 

 The nest, about the size of that of a Blackbird, was 

 made on the lowest fork of the tree, composed of dry 

 twigs of a loose texture ; however, no eggs were laid, 

 for from the too great curiosity of frequent observers, 

 the birds forsook it." Mr. Joseph Clarke of Saffron 

 Walden, whose account of these birds has been before 

 referred to, says, " Some eight or ten years ago, early 

 in March, a pair made a nest at the Audley End aviary, 

 near this town, in which the female deposited five eggs. 

 The nest was of a loose texture, not unlike that of the 

 common Greenfinch, though not near so well, or so care- 



