io« THE CORN (OR COMMON) BUNTING 



by drawing the inferior mandible sideways — force open the scales.' 

 " ' At this stage ', YarreU proceeds to say, ' the end of the tongue 

 becomes necessary ; and this organ is no less admirably adapted 

 for the service required. . . . While the points of the beak press 

 the scale from the body of the cone, the tongue is enabled to direct 

 and insert its cutting scoop underneath the seed, and the food thus 

 dislodged is transferred to the mouth ; and when the mandibles 

 are separated laterally in this operation the bird has an uninter- 

 rupted view of the seed in the cavity with the eye on that side to 

 which the under mandible is curved.'" 



The beak of the Crossbill then, far from being a defect in the 

 organization of the bird, is a perfect implement always at its 

 owner's command, faultless alike in design £ind execution, and 

 exquisitely adapted to its work, not an easy one, of performing, 

 by a single process, the office of splitting, opening, and securing the 

 contents of a fir-cone, and he must be a bold man who could venture 

 to suggest an improvement in its mechanism. 



It has been observed that young birds in the nest have not their 

 mandibles crossed, and at this period such an arrangement would 

 be useless, as they are dependent for food on the parent birds. 

 It has also been observed that the side on which the upper mandible 

 crosses the lower varies in different individuals ; in some it descends 

 on the right side of the lower mandible, in others on the left. The 

 bird appears to have no choice in the matter, but whatever direction 

 it takes at first, the same it always retains. 



The nest of the Crossbill is constructed of slender twigs of fir and 

 coarse dry grass, and lined with fine grass and a few hairs, and 

 concealed among the upper branches of a Scotch fir. 



The Two-barred (or White-winged) Crossbill (Loxia hifasciata) is 

 only a rare straggler in winter to this country. 



THE CORN (OR COMMON) BUNTING 



EMBERfZA MILIARIA 



Upper parts yellowish brown, with dusky spots ; under parts yellowish white, 

 spotted and streaked with dusky. Length seven inches and a half. Eggs 

 dull white, tinged with yellow, or pink, and spotted and streaked with 

 dark purple brown. 



Though called the Common Bunting, this bird is by no means 

 so abundant in England as the Yellow Bunting ; its name, however, 

 is not misapplied, as it appears to be the most generally diffused 

 of the family, being found all over the European continent, in the 

 islands of the Mediterranean, in Asia Minor, and the north of 

 Africa. In the latter district it appears as a bird of passage in 

 November ; and about Martinmas it is so abundant as to become a 

 staple article of food. At this season, aU the trees in the public 



