THE CROSS- BILL. 
361 
Those who desire to find the nest of the Bullfinch must search in the thickets and most 
retired parts of woods or copses, and they may, perhaps, find the nest hidden very carefully 
away in some leafy branch at no great height from the ground. A thick bush is a very favorite 
spot for the nest ; but I have more than once found them in hazel branches, so slender that 
their weight has bent them aside. The eggs are very prettily marked with deep violet 
and purple-brown streaks and mottlings upon a greenish- white ground, and are easily recog- 
nizable by the more or less perfect ring which they form round the larger end of the egg. 
The eggs are generally five in number. 
The parents are very fond of their young, and retain them through the autumn and 
winter, not casting them off until the next breeding season. The families assemble together in 
little flocks only five or six in number, and may be seen flying about in company, but never 
associating with birds of any other species. 
In confinement it is a very jealous and withal a most combative bird, not easily daunted, 
and fighting with its fellow-prisoners till one or the other is vanquished, or even killed. These 
birds have been known to fight continually with other inhabitants of the same cage, and even 
to kill the goldfinch in spite of his long pointed bill and high spirit. Many persons who 
keep Bullfinches find their plumage getting gradually darker until at last it assumes a black 
hue. This change of color is mostly produced by two causes — one the confinement in a smoky 
atmosphere, and the other the presence of hemp-seed in the food. Hemp-seed, when too 
liberally given, has often this effect upon the cage-birds, and even the light colors of the gold- 
finch will darken into dingy black and brown under its influence. The reason of so curious a 
phenomenon is not known, but it is virtually a problem which, when solved, may be of con- 
siderable value. 
The color of the adult male bird is as follows : — 
The base of the neck and the back are beautiful slaty-gray, which has been known to take 
a roseate hue. The top of the head, the greater wing-coverts, the upper tail-coverts, and the 
chin are jetty-black, and the tips of the wing-coverts are snowy- white, so that they form 
a bold white bar across the wing. The quill-feathers of the wing and tail are deep black with 
a perceptible violet lustre, and the sides of the head, the throat, breast, and abdomen are light 
and rather peculiar red with a slight chestnut tinge. As is the case with most birds, varieties 
are not uncommon. The bill is deep shining black. 
The female is not so brilliantly colored as her mate, the gray of the back being of a rather 
dingy cast, and the red of the under portions being of a purplish-brown hue. Young birds are 
colored like the female, except that the head is not black. The total length of the bird rather 
exceeds six inches. 
THE CROSS-BILLS, THE PLANT-CUTTERS, AND THE COLIES. 
The Cross-bills are most remarkable birds, and have long been celebrated on account of 
the singular form of beak from which they derive their name. 
In all these birds, the two mandibles completely cross one another, so that at first sight 
the structure appears to be a malformation, and to prohibit the bird from picking up seeds or 
feeding itself in any way. But when the Cross-bill is seen feeding, it speedily proves itself to 
be favored with all the ordinary faculties of birds, and to be as capable of obtaining its food as 
any of the straight-beaked birds. 
The food of the Cross-bill consists almost, if not wholly, of seeds, which it obtains in 
a very curious manner. It is very fond of apple-pips, and settling on the tree where ripe 
apples are to be found, attacks the fruit with its beak, and in a very -few moments cuts a hole 
fairly into the “core,” from which it picks out the seeds daintly and eats them, rejecting the 
ripe pulpy fruit in which they had been enveloped. As the Cross-bill is rather a voracious 
bird, the havoc which it will make in an orchard may be imagined. 
Some persons say that the bird is able to cut an apple in two with a single bite ; but I 
should fancy that in such cases the apple must be of the smaliesx and the bird of the largest, 
Vol. n.— 46. 
