200 . THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Since my last notice of Crossbills (Zool. 1889, p. 454) they 

 have continued to frequent my plantations uninterruptedly, and 

 have been met with through the winter in flocks, in small parties, 

 and in pairs, usually feeding on the cones of fir and larch trees. 

 I saw a flock on November 8th feeding on the unripe ivy- 

 berries on a low tree by the roadside. They have also been seen 

 feeding on beech-mast on the ground, and in February were 

 noticed picking on the ground beneath a willow covered with 

 catkins. A pair used to resort to a stream below this house, and 

 fly back to the woods above. In February they were frequently 

 met with in pairs. 



They have been seen most frequently about a hill on which 

 remain, among younger plantings, portions of the older woods 

 of Scotch fir, and a large grove of larch on which they delight 

 to feed. On the summit of this hill, at a place called the Giant's 

 Kock, is an inhabited house, with a garden near it, among the 

 firs and larch. A young man working in the garden observed, 

 on March 10th, a Crossbill carrying twigs to the top of a Scotch 

 fir, in which he discovered the nest. It can only be seen by 

 looking straight up through the tree-top, in which it is placed, 

 against the sky. This tree, the outer one of the group, is bare 

 of living branches to within a short distance of its top, which 

 consists of a mass of green bending over from the west wind, and 

 in the midst of this mass the nest is built among the thick tufts. 

 It has not been touched. The finder saw the Crossbills visit 

 it frequently with building materials during the mornings and 

 forenoons subsequent to March 10th. On the 13th they carried 

 to it material like moss. I have several times seen the birds fly 

 to and from it, and recognized the male by his redness. He was 

 heard singing on a neighbouring tree. This pair have probably 

 reared their young in safety, for on May 10th a pair of Crossbills 

 were seen feeding their young on larch trees in the vicinity of 

 this nest. 



On March 20th I saw another pair fly to a group of trees 

 where I suspected they were building, and in which their nest 

 was discovered on the 24th. It was also in the top of a Scotch 

 fir, among the outer row of the group, on the edge of a field 

 beside a footpath, and about 250 yards from the first nest. It 

 was built in the fork formed by several small lateral branches 

 with the leader, which at that point takes a bend ; and the nest, 



