148 FRINGILLID.E. 



ready eggs as early as February and March ; and they were 

 even observed beginning to build in the middle of Decem- 

 ber. The nests were placed on the branches of lofty trees, at 

 the elevation of from sixty to a hundred and twenty feet 

 from the ground, and were so placed that the snow could 

 not fall into them. 



The nest of this species is chiefly built of slender fir- 

 twigs, and is from one to three inches in thickness ; some 

 are lined with dry grass, or the dead leaves of the fir. The 

 eggs are four or five in number, and are said to be larger 

 than those of the Common Crossbills, in colour bluish white, 

 with violet and dusky spots, chiefly disposed around the 

 larger end. The young are hatched after a fortnight's in- 

 cubation, and are believed, like the former species, to be 

 fed with seeds prepared in the crops of their parents. 



The habits, manners, and food of this species so nearly re- 

 semble those of the Common Crossbill, as to need no further 

 description : their call-notes are also much the same. 



The Parrot Crossbill may be distinguished from the com- 

 mon species by the greater size of its beak and head. The 

 beak also differs in form, being thicker and stronger ; the 

 mandibles appear likewise shorter in proportion, and when 

 viewing the beak sideways the tip of the under mandible 

 does not show itself above the ridge of the upper one, as it 

 does in the preceding species. The body of this bird is 

 also greater in bulk, as may be proved by comparing their 

 respective breastbones. 



The plumage of this bird passes through the same gra- 

 dual and remarkable changes that are performed in the Com- 

 mon Crossbill ; and with regard to this species, Temminck 

 adopts the more recent views of ornithologists, namely, 

 that the red plumage (as we endeavoured to prove in 

 the case of the preceding species) is that of the mature 

 male bird, the yellow and orange that of the younger males; 



