MARCH. 
53 
male^ and the curved mark near the eye was visible only 
by a slightly darker shade. 
C. — The common Crossbill ( Curvirostra Americana ) is 
a pretty bird^ and seems to be a general favourite : probably 
because^ like the Redbreast of our own country^ he manifests 
such a saucy familiarity with us ; hardly making room for 
us to pass by^, and immediately returning to his picking at 
the dish-washings of the sink;, or the scraps of the kitchen. 
Perhaps too^, we prize him more^, because birds are now 
scarce, and he reminds us of brighter and sunnier days. 
F. — When I was in Newfoundland, a friend one winter's 
day knocked a Crossbill from the summit of a young pine, 
which proving to be only stunned, we put into a cage. He 
became immediately very familiar, and much amused us 
by his tricks, crawling about the inside of his cage, and 
even from the roof, like a parrot, grasping the wires with his 
claws, and using his bill as a third foot, to help himself along. 
After a few days we opened his cage, but he did not ap- 
pear to have pined much for liberty, for he crawled out and 
in for some considerable time before he brought himself to 
bid adieu to his wiry home. The very remarkable conform- 
ation of the bill in this genus has been, by purblind philoso- 
phists, stigmatized as a defective organization ; but in reality 
it is peculiarly adapted, like all the other works of the all- 
wise and benevolent God, to the purposes for which it is 
designed ; its mode of obtaining its food being as follows : — 
The seeds of the coniferous trees, on which it principally 
subsists, are concealed beneath hard, woody scales, lying 
tightly and closely on each other. The bird, bringing the 
tips of the mandibles together, inserts the united points be- 
neath the scale, then separating the points, forces it out- 
wards, and extracts the seed. 
C. — What other birds are to be met with at this season ? 
F, — I believe I saw the Pine Finch ( Fringilla Pimis ) 
