74 CROSSBILL 
the same way, but is shredded, not pulled to pieces, so 
that when finished it resembles a ball of fibre; the bird 
works at the cones with great patience and perseverance. 
Fruit, and even green food, such as chickweed, are also 
eaten in the same manner. The latter it would not at 
first eat, being probably in a wild state unaccustomed to 
it. It drinks a great deal. From the first it was absurdly 
tame.’ 
On 17th July 1903 Mr. Graves observed a flock of some 
twenty specimens, some of which were males in bright red 
plumage, in the Rhenass Glen. These birds were feeding 
on larch cones in the plantation at the upper end of the 
pleasure ground, and which grows on the beautiful spot 
where a high rocky knoll parts the two branches of the 
glen formed respectively by the Rhenass and Blabar rivers, 
which flow beneath on either side in a succession of falls 
and rapids through rich foliage. The ground beneath the 
trees was strewn with fallen cones, which in place of being 
shredded as was done by the captive bird, usually had some 
of the scales covering the seed split by a single cleft, and 
most had been very imperfectly ransacked, the Crossbills 
having cut off large quantities of fruit which was forsaken 
almost as quickly as procured. The flock was afterwards 
seen in other parts of the glen. 
The species breeds in many Irish counties, doubtfully in 
those nearest our shores. It has bred in Kirkcudbright- 
shire and in Cumberland, but in these counties, as generally 
in Britain, it is best known as an erratic and irregular 
visitant. It has frequently appeared in Orkney and Shet- 
land. A few have lately been seen in one of the Outer 
Hebrides. 
