1 66 Field and Forest Rambles. 



the young, and destruction of the vitality of the egg, to leave 

 them exposed for any length of time. 



The various shades of plumage in this and other crossbills 

 are demonstrably the result of age ; the red of the adult male 

 not being attained until the third yean The great diversities 

 in colouring, from the olive-green of the young male — like that 

 of the female — to the various red and yellow combinations of 

 the adolescent bird, are perhaps connected in some way with 

 imperfect and gradual moultings. Now, when the rigorous 

 climates it frequents are considered, we might expect that a 

 complete moulting would be attended, in autumn, with some 

 risks to the bird, and probably it is on this account that the 

 above and other species do not obey the general law ; and as 

 to breeding in winter, if it be the case that the majority is 

 then composed of birds from higher latitudes, the well-known 

 fact that many other migratory birds breed in their winter re- 

 treats makes the case of the crossbills and pine bullfinches not 

 a singular one. This, however, leaves the cause of the inter- 

 mediate coloured plumage totally unexplained, unless it be the 

 case that accidental varieties are more likely to take place in 

 birds that are slowly and constantly dropping their feathers 

 and obtaining fresh ones ; but why at length an uniform robe 

 should be attained does not appear, unless the former variations 

 are relics of long-lost colourings of some bird member of the 

 genus Curviroslra. The white-winged crossbill of Europe 

 differs, it is said, from this only in respect of the bill, which 

 is said to be rather stouter than that of the other, which 

 is remarkably slender and compressed, more especially as 

 compared with its compeer the American crossbill. The 

 latter is also a resident, but whether a winter breeder or 

 not I cannot discover ; at all events it has one brood in 

 the spring, as I have frequently seen fledglings in July, long 

 after the second brood of the other had dispersed. Both 

 are very hardy birds, and usually assemble in flocks ; but I 

 have not seen the two together, and the last-named rarely in 



