212 
NATtfRAL HISTORY 
rabbit’s down, a few feathers, and horse hair. The eggs 
are from six to eight, and are of a light colour. 
Cross Bill. (PI. 34.) This bird is about the size of 
a lark, being nearly seven inches in length. It is distin- 
guished by the peculiar formation of its bill, the upper 
and under coming in opposite directions, and crossing 
each other at the points. Its eyes are hazel; its general 
colour reddish, mixed with brown on the upper parts;: 
the under parts are considerably paler, being almost white 
at the vent; the wings are short, not reaching farther than 
the setting on of the tail, they are of a brown colour, and 
somewhat forked; the legs are black. Its colours are ex- 
tremely subject to variation, both male and female ap- 
pearing very different at different times of the year. 
Notwithstanding the apparent awkwardness of their 
beaks, they are able, by bringing the mandibles point to 
point, even to pick up and eat the smallest seeds. This 
bird, when kept in a cage, has all the actions of a parrot* 
climbing, by means of his crooked bill, from the lower 
to the upper bars. It is an inhabitant of the colder cli- 
mates, and has been found as far as Greenland. It breeds 
in Russia, Sweden, Poland, and Germany, in the moun- 
tains of Switzerland, and among the Alps and Pyrenees, 
from whence they migrate in vast flocks into other coun- 
tries. It is sometimes met within great numbers in Eng- 
land, but its visits are not regular. 
The principal food of these birds is said to be the seeds 
of the pine-tree; the German bird-catchers generally feed 
them with poppy Tind other small seed; and they shell 
hemp-seeds in eating them a$ well as any other birds 
whatever. The female begins to build, as early as Janua- 
ry, her hemispherical nest in the bare branches of the pine- 
tree, fixing it with resinous matter which exudes from 
that tree, and besmearing it on the outside with the same 
substance, so that melted snow or rain cannot penetrate 
it. In this she lays a few whitish eggs, spotted towards 
the thicker end with red. They are rare in this 
country. > 
Swift. ( Hirundo . PI. 34.) This is the largest of the 
swallow kind known in these climates, being often eigh- 
