AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 
v 39 
where we have judged too hastily of the operations of Nature, 
that no other conformation could have been so excellently 
adapted to the purpose; and that its deviation from the 
common form, instead of being a defect or monstrosity, as the 
celebrated French naturalist insinuates, is a striking proof of 
the wisdom and kind superintending care of the great Creator. 
This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our 
pine forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of 
September to the middle of April. It is not improbable that 
some of them remain during summer within the territory of the 
United States to breed. Their numbers must, however, be 
in this country, as supposed by Mr Knap, from the bareness of the breast. They 
descend, at the same season, to the orchards, where they do considerable damage, 
by splitting the apples for the pips, thus leaving the fruit useless, and incapable 
of farther growth ; and, at the same time, giving us a good instance of the 
power of their bills. Some old writers accuse them of visiting Worcester and 
Herefordshire, “ in great flocks, for the sake of the seeds of the apple. Repeated 
persecution on this account perhaps lessened their numbers, and their depreda- 
tions at the present day are unnoticed or unknown : ” their visitations, at least, 
are less frequent ; for a later writer in Loudon’s Magazine observes, that, in 
1821, and the commencement of 1822, (the same season of their great 
appearance mentioned by Mr Selby,) a large flock of Crossbills frequented 
some fir groves at Cothoridge, near Worcester, where they used to visit the 
same spot pretty regularly twice a-day, delighting chiefly on the Weymouth 
pines. When feeding, they seem in this country, as well as with our author, 
to be remarkably tame, or so much engrossed with their food, as to be 
unmindful of danger. Montague relates, that a birdcatcher at Bath had 
taken a hundred pairs in the month of June and July, 1791 ; and so intent 
were these birds when picking out the seeds of a cone, that they would suffer 
themselves to be caught with a hair noose at the end of a long fishing-rod. 
In 1821, this country was visited with large flocks; they appeared in June, 
and gradually moved northward, as they were observed by Mr Selby in 
September among the fir tracts of Scotland, after they had disappeared to the 
southward of the river Tweed. In 1828, a pretty large flock visited the 
vicinity of Ambleside, Westmoreland. Their favourite haunt was a plantation 
of young larches, where they might be seen disporting almost every day, 
particularly between the hours of eleven and one. 
I have quoted no synonyms which belong to our British species. The 
American birds appear to me much smaller ; that is, to judge from our author’s 
plate, and the usually correct drawings of Mr Audubon — Ed. 
