FOREST, AND ITS FAUNA 49 



both the Siberian and Canadian taiga they form a very 

 large part of the natural food of the pine grosbeak 

 (Pinicola enucleator), a gorgeous bird related to the 

 bullfinch, and of the crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), also 

 with bright-coloured plumage. Pine cones, it will be 

 remembered, ripen slowly, and during the ripening 

 process the seeds are carefully protected by the closing 

 of the scales, so that their extrication is a matter of 

 difficulty. The forester is constrained to apply heat to 

 obtain the seeds without damage, but the crossbills 

 have the beak converted into an instrument by means 

 of which the seeds are readily prized out. More slashing 

 are the methods of the nutcracker {Nucifraga cixryo- 

 catactes), which in the Alps, as in Siberia, may be seen 

 breaking the cones of the Cembra pine to pieces with 

 its powerful bill. The western coniferous wood of 

 North America is inhabited by another species. Re- 

 lated to the nutcrackers are the magpies and jays, the 

 latter represented in the eastern taiga by the Siberian 

 jay (Perisoreus infaustus), with soft fluffy plumage of 

 a reddish colour. 



Reptiles and amphibians are few in number in the 

 northern forest, the former especially. Among am- 

 phibia, frogs and toads haunt the pools and swamps, 

 an important form being the large bull-frog (Bana 

 catesbiana) of North America, which is exceedingly 

 voracious, devouring fish, young water-birds, «fec., and 

 derives its common name from its noisy croak, which is 

 compared to the roaring of a bull. The tree-frogs 

 (Hylidae), with their usually greenish colour and the 

 curious adhesive pads at the ends of the toes, by means 

 of which they keep their foothold, have a much wider 

 distribution in America than in the Old World. In 

 the Eurasiatic continent the common tree-frog {Hyla 



1404 D 



