THE COMMON CROSSBILL. 187 



the State of Maine assured me that they had found it on pine trees in the 

 middle of winter, and while the earth was deeply covered with snow. The 

 people employed in cutting pine timber at that season, when it is easier to 

 remove the logs to the rivers, in which they are subsequently floated when 

 the ice melts, have very frequently told me, that on felling a tree they have 

 caught the young Crossbills, which had been jerked out of their nest. 

 Several of my acquaintances in that district promised to send me nests, eggs, 

 and young; but as yet, I am sorry to say, none of them have reached me. 

 While at Labrador I was much disappointed at not finding a single bird of 

 this species, although the White-winged Crossbill was tolerably abundant 

 there; and in Newfoundland matters were precisely the same. 



The Crossbill lives in flocks, composed apparently of several families, and 

 is an extremely gentle and social bird. They are easily approached, caught 

 in traps, or even killed with a stick. So unsuspicious are they with respect 

 to man, that they not unfrequently come up to the very door of the wood- 

 man's cabin, and pick the mud with which he has plastered the spaces 

 between the logs of which it is composed. When the huts are raised on 

 blocks, to prevent dampness, they are often seen under them, picking up the 

 earth for want of better food, while the weather is at its coldest. 



Their food consists principally of the seeds contained in the cones of 

 different species of the pine and fir. In the pine forests of Pennsylvania I 

 saw them feeding on those of the white pine, the hemlock, and the spruce, 

 as well as on various kinds of fruits. Wherever an apple-tree bore fruit, 

 the Crossbills were sure to be on it, cutting the apples to pieces in order to 

 get at the seeds, in the manner of our Parakeet of the south. Nothing can 

 exceed the dexterity with which they extricate the seeds from the cones 

 with their bill, the point of the upper mandible of which they employ as a 

 hook, placing it at the base of the seed, and drawing it up with a sudden 

 jerk of the head. They frequently stand on one foot only, and employ the 

 other in conveying the food to their bill, in the manner of parrots. They 

 are fond of all saline matter. 



The flight of this species is undulating, firm, tolerably swift, and capable 

 of being protracted over a large space. While travelling they pass in the 

 air in straggling flocks, and keep up a constant noise, each individual now 

 and then emitting a clear note or call. They move with ease on the ground, 

 alight sidewise on the walls of houses and on trees, on the twigs of which 

 they climb with the aid of their bill. When caged they soon become tame, 

 and are fed without any difficulty. 



I have presented you with a flock of these Crossbills, composed of indi- 

 viduals of different ages, engaged in their usual occupations, on a branch of 

 their favourite tree, the hemlock pine. 



