2238 The Zoologist — August, 1870. 



leave us as suddenly as they come, and as soon as the breeding-season 

 is over they leave for other districts, and we see very few, often none, 

 in the summer. It is not every year that we have them, and it is 

 singular that we rarely ever have both the parrot and common cross- 

 bill breeding with us in the same year. I take it all depends upon 

 the state of the cones on the pines and firs. When there are plenty 

 of fir-cones in the autumn, it is pretty certain that we shall have the 

 common crossbills breeding with us that winter, and the same with the 

 parrot crossbills where the cones on the pines are plentiful. But 

 this appears to happen in our forests only about every third or fourth 

 year. One curious fact I have observed, which is this, that if we see 

 large flocks of crossbills in our forests in the autumn (they generally 

 appear about September or early in October) we shall have very little 

 snow that winter. The pairing season begins about the middle of 

 January, when both male and female have a very pretty song; that of 

 the female, however, much the faintest. Were it not for the difference 

 of the landscape, we might almost at this season imagine ourselves in 

 the tropical forests of the south, when we watch a little flock of these 

 birds feeding, flitting from cone to cone, or climbing over them with 

 their backs downwards, like the parrots, their bright-red or orange 

 plumage reflected in the rays of the afternoon sun (at which time they 

 are generally busiest feeding), which even at this inclement season 

 gilds the tops of the firs for an hour or two before sinking below the 

 horizon. They go to nest often in the end of January, always by the 

 middle of February. The nest of both species is placed (almost 

 invariably) in a small pine, near to the tip, close in to the stem, never 

 in a deep forest, but always with us on a stony rise, where the pines 

 are small aud wide apart. The parrot crossbill generally goes to nest 

 a little later than the common one. By the middle or end of April 

 the young birds are strong flyers, and we never take a nest with eggs 

 after that month. The nest of both species is much alike (that of the 

 parrot crossbill thickest and largest) ; built outwardly of dry fir-sticks, 

 lined thickly with moss and grass. The eggs much resemble those of 

 the green linnet, but are always larger. The egg of the parrot cross- 

 hill is often scarcely larger than that of the common bird, although 

 usually it is thicker and has a finer and bolder character. The full 

 number of eggs appears to be three, and it is very rarely that we find 

 four in a nest. Some naturalists say that the crossbills breed at all 

 seasons, from December to June, and that the winter nest is domed, 

 with a hole in the side to go in at. All I can say is (and I have had 



