4 
The hish NaUiralist. 
January, 
has a " protective" harmony with the reds and greens of 
the Scotch Firs, that, as the bird is so much more addicted 
to feeding on cones of the Spruce than of the Scotch Fir, 
a coloration that made it harmonize chiefly with the latter 
would be hopelessly astray. 
I think I showed in a review of the first part of Mr. 
Kirkman's fine book^ that the reasoning employed by 
Mr. E. Selous on both of these subjects was faulty, even 
assuming his premises, founded on Seebohm, to be correct. 
The earliest Crossbill would never have needed to he a 
Crossbill at all unless it had wanted to force open cones 
with a strong close structure like those of the Scotch Fir ; 
for those of the Spruce and Larch present no problem 
whatever to any of the finches, and are readily opened by 
the Siskin, the Lesser Redpole, and the Goldfinch — our 
three smallest representatives of the family. The pine-feed- 
ing Parrot -Crossbill is therefore more likely to have been 
the ancestral than the recently evolved form ; and a type 
of coloring that is practically common to all the Crossbills 
might very well be explained (as Mr. Ussher thought from 
his observations at Cappagh) by its agreement with the 
foliage and boughs of the Scotch Firs that had, from time 
immemorial, been the typical Crossbill environment. 
If, however, it be correct to say that our Crossbill, in the 
Continental parts of its range, now feeds principally on the 
seeds of the Spruce, some explanation is needed of its very 
different attitude towards that tree in the south-eastern 
part (and probably throughout the rest) of Ireland. 
In Co. Wexford, at any rate, the Crossbill seems never 
to touch the cones of the Spruce Fir. This has been equally 
the case with the birds of the 1888 incursion — which visited 
us in at least six different seasons, sometimes staying for 
half a year or more — and with those that are with us now. 
The former, as I have said, in all their visits to Ballyhyland 
fed chiefly on Larch, but in a lesser degree also on Scotch 
Fir. The latter make the seeds of the Scotch Fir their 
principal food, and give a "good second" place to the 
Larch. But in no case have I seen either a Crossbill at work 
^ Irish Natuyalist, vol. xviii., pp. 250, 251. 
