CROSSBILL 
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much better than to shoot them. To many people 
who can treat their gardens for pleasure rather 
than profit, a quart or two of plums in September 
seems in any case a small price to pay for a pair or 
two of Bullfinches in the spring. The nest is 
built early in May, in a thorn or other hedge, 
among brambles, in garden shrubs, and various 
similar situations, generally between four and 
eight feet from the ground. It is a shallow saucer 
of slender twigs, cushioned with fine fibrous roots, 
and sometimes a little horse-hair. It is a stronger 
structure than it looks ; and is quite different 
from that of any other bird of its size. The eggs, 
four or five in number, are often extremely beautiful, 
being pale blue, with a tinge of green in it, spotted, 
speckled, or blotched, mainly at the larger end, with 
rich purple-red, in shades of various depth. The 
song of the wild Bullfinch is sweet, but low ; the 
note most often heard is a single, low, sweet pipe, 
often uttered upon the wing. 
CROSSBILL. 
(Loxia curvirostra.) 
The Crossbill is the only member which 
frequents this country at all regularly of a family 
of the Finch tribe remarkable for the way in which 
