640 
BIRD-LIFE, 
with its pendant decoration of rosy apples, though they 
differ from these ornaments, in that the lively band is 
always in a state of quiet motion: they climb up and 
down like Parrots ; some feeding; some playing; others 
chattering softly to one another; those only who have 
had their fill sit motionless in one place. From time to 
time a male bird will perch on the topmost branch of the 
tree and serenade those below him with his pleasant, 
low, twittering, and sometimes purring ditty; these keep 
calling, “ geup, geup, geup,” or “ tzik, tzik,” so as to 
keep the company together; while the females often 
chime in with a soft, “ jip, jip.” This forms a charming 
accompaniment to the song of the male bird at the top 
of the tree. Below it is a comical sight: one hangs 
head downwards; another clings with feet and beak in 
the air; a third twists its heavy head hind part before; 
while a fourth is occupied carrying a fresh cone on to 
some neighbouring branch. The labour of getting their 
food is by no means a light one, for every seed the 
Crossbill swallows has to be dug out of the pine-cone in 
which it lies buried. The Parrot Crossbill appears to be 
the only species of its genus which can open a pine-cone 
without any very extraordinary effort; the remaining 
species can only open those of the spruce or larch. The 
process of breaking them open has been carefully observed 
by my father, who describes it very clearly. The bird 
first of all bites off a cone, and drags it by the stalk to a 
thick bough; here it seizes the cone with its claws, and 
nips off the thin end of one of the scales with the sharp 
point of its bill, then opens its beak somewhat and thrusts 
the points of the mandibles under the seed-cover, wrench¬ 
ing it off without much difficulty by a lateral movement 
of the head; now the bird squeezes out the seed with its 
