136 
CROSSBILL. 
arrests attention. On the larger ones they perch, and make 
them at once their dining-table and their dinner—‘mensas 
consumimus:’ sometimes the cone falls to the ground—an 
unfortunate turning of the tables for the poor bird. They 
occasionally descend to drink. 
In spring, the note, though low, is pleasing and agreeable; 
at other times while feeding, they keep up a constant chatter 
—a ‘chip, chip/ and ‘soc, soc,’ accompanied by a movement 
of the body, and in flying from one place to another, emit a 
sharp tone. On warm sunny days, they sometimes indulge 
in a sudden flight, and after disporting themselves about for 
a short time in full chorus, alight on the tops of the trees, 
continuing for a time a gentle warbling; both the male and 
female sing. 
Nidification commences very early in foreign countries, 
even in January or February, the young having been found 
fledged in March. 
The nest is placed in the angle of the junction of the 
branches to the tree, low down and also high up; and is 
loosely compacted of small twigs, grass, small straws, and 
moss, lined on the inside with the dry leaves of the fir tree, 
and also with feathers. 
The eggs are white, sometimes tinged with blue or green, 
and spotted, chiefly at the thicker end, with reddish, bluish 
red, purple, or brown. 
These birds vary very greatly in size, as they also do in 
colour, exhibiting a diversity of shades according to age or 
season, of yellow, orange, red, scarlet, green, and olive. 
Male; length, from six inches and a quarter to seven and a 
half; the bill, which varies considerably in length, curvature, 
and the degree of elongation of the lower mandible, is above 
principally dark greyish brown, as is the tip of the lower bill, 
the remainder being dull yellowish; the upper part sometimes 
inclines to the right, and sometimes to the left, and the bill 
has a lateral expansion as well as the ordinary one. Iris, 
hazel; head and crown, pale dull red; neck behind and nape, 
pale red mixed with grey; breast above, pale dull red with 
a mixture of yellow, below greyish white, darker on the sides. 
Back, on the middle part dusky red, the lower part bright 
reddish yellow. 
The wings expand to the width of a little over eleven 
inches and a third to eleven and three quarters; the second 
quill is the longest, the first a trifle shorter, as is the third 
