290 BRITISH BIRDS [vol. viii. 



branch about thirty feet up a Scotch fir on the opposite 

 side of the road. Later on in the morning we saw another 

 hen Crossbill building in a larch in the garden. While 

 the hen was building, the cock was singing in the same tree ; 

 soon another cock appeared, and settled about a foot off 

 the first one. They both started calling, using the '' chiking '" 

 note. They kept this up for about two minutes, the noise 

 getting louder and louder, then they both flew into the 

 air and tumbled over each other, and then settled on the 

 branch again. They went through this performance several 

 times until the intruder was put to flight. We also saw 

 another hen bird stripping the bark off a silver birch and 

 carrying it away, but this one we failed to track. The next 

 morning the first two hens were busy building, and in another 

 part of the garden we saw another hen bird building in, a 

 Scotch fir. This nest was on a lateral branch about twelve 

 feet from the ground and four feet from the main trunk. 

 The same day I visited a part of the wood about half a 

 mile away, where I expected to find Crossbills, and saw a 

 flock of eight, four cocks and four hens, feeding in a larch. 

 I watched them for about an hour, when they fiew off in 

 pairs. I followed one hen bird and saw it pick up some 

 small pieces of grass, and fly off with them, but I failed 

 to find the nest. The next day broke very rough, with wind 

 and snow, and the birds seemed to leave off building. I 

 visited Middleton on the following Saturday, and found 

 that the two nests in the Scotch firs had progressed con- 

 siderably, but the one in the larch had blown down and the 

 birds had gone elsewhere. On visiting the part of the wood 

 mentioned above, I found a nest which I thought was a 

 Crossbill's, and on climbing up to it the next morning found 

 that it contained one egg, but this nest was afterwards 

 deserted. On the same morning I visited the nest in the 

 Scotch fir in the garden, but although the nest seemed 

 quite finished it contained no eggs. This nest had larch 

 twigs for a foundation, then a little moss, quantities of 

 coarse grasses, and was lined with very fine grasses and a 

 good many feathers, but as far as I could see, contained 

 no horsehair. This was a very pretty nest, and the founda- 

 tion of twigs was continued right up the sides and formed 

 a platform right round the top of the nest. On March 10th 

 I climbed up to both the nests in the Scotch firs, first of 

 all visiting the one on the opposite side of the road, and 

 found it contained three eggs. This nest, which was near 

 a stable, was built on a platform of larch twigs and was 

 made of moss, grass, quantities of horsehair, one or two 



