7634 Birds. 



difference, I now find, in size between the eggs of the common and 



parrot crossbill (except in the very old birds, who rarely lay more than 



three eggs), that the size alone can never be relied upon as a certain 



mai'k of distinction. In the winter and spring of 1859 and 1860, 1 did 



not obtain a single nest of either, for the snow lay too deep in our 



forests to get about; but that some bred with us at their usual time, 



even in that severe weather, was proved by the fact that in the end of 



June I shot two young parrot crossbills, which had probably left the 



nest two months. We had no very great supply of fir cones this winter, 



but plenty of fruit on the pines, and on these cones I fancy the parrot 



crossbill almost exclusively feeds. At any rate, although I have 



occasionally seen them on the fir trees, I can always feel certain, if 



I see any crossbills on a pine, they are parrot crossbills. After the 16th 



of April I have not got a single nest, although I have been seelting 



with double vigilance, to prove, if possible, that they breed later on. 



Curious that I found a new nest just completed about that time, which, 



however, the birds deserted without laying in. Could instinct have 



told them that the season was over, and that all their comrades had 



finished their tasks ? I fancy the families keep together till the autumn, 



when they pack ; but they do not always remain throughout the summer 



in the district where they breed. The common crossbill seems to go 



to nest a little earlier than the other. 



It is not to be wondered at that so little is known of the breeding 

 habits of a bird so rare and local as the parrot crossbill. It is not 

 every one who cares to watch the forest when the snow lies a foot or 

 two on the ground, and fewer still who can be depended upon as to 

 the identity of the bird if they find a chance nest. 



We began to catch the burbolt under the ice about the 5th of 

 January, and the spawning season appeared to last till the middle of 

 February; but the season has been a bad one. I ate the first smelt in 

 Carlstadt in the first week of April: they were the finest I ever saw. 

 I measured one about a foot in length, and we are just now beginning 

 the pike season. In a letter from that veteran sportsman Mr. Lloyd, 

 of the 12lh of April, from Wenersborg, he says: — "Yesterday I was 

 out with my rodj and killed a brace of trout, weighing together 30fbs. ; 

 but the day was desperately cold and windy, or I should probably 

 have done better." 



I don't know what your fox-hunting friends will think of us when 

 they read the following passage : — Never were so many foxes shot in our 

 neighbourhood as during the last winter; and although we have had 

 a wolf or two sneaking about our forests, I did not hear of one being 



