fir-twigs : then was a layer of coarse, dry grass, and it was
lined with finer grass and a few long hairs. It was lodged
close to the stem of a Scotch fir, about thirty inches below
its summit, at the base of the shoots of the year 1887, and
supported by five or six ascending lateral branches which
so concealed it that it could have been scarcely perceptible
from the ground. The Gloucestershire nest (ut supra) is
described as built of dead twigs of the larch and spruce,
within which it was formed of dry grass and tender stalks,
compacted with wool and the whole lined with horsehair.
Other nests from Scotland are neatly and firmly built
externally of fir-sticks and heather, with a few splinters of
decayed wood. Mixed with these is a little fine grass interwoven
with long vegetable fibres, and the lining is of white
hair-lichen with some bits of moss and wool. The outward
size of the nest varies a good deal, for it occasionally
measures as much as eight inches in diameter, but its
internal dimensions are pretty constant.
The eggs, in number four or, rarely, five, are very like
Greenfinches’ except that they are larger, measuring fiom
*94 to ‘78 by from ‘68 to *57 in. Their colour is french-
white, sometimes tinged with very pale blue, and they are
sparingly speckled, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown
of two or three shades, the lightest being in the form of
suffused patches, and the darkest in that of well-defined
markings—these last being often surrounded by a penumbra
of lighter red, but occasionally dwindling to mere lines.
On the European continent the Crossbill inhabits almost
all pine-forests from Lapland to Spain on the west and
to Greece on the east. It is also permanently resident in
Mauritania. Though more abundant towards the north, it
yet breeds in nearly the extreme southern countries of its
range, and its nest has been found equally on the Atlas and
on Parnassus. Gifted with considerable power of flight, and
impelled by casual dearth of food to exercise that faculty, it
visits, though, in the character only of a wanderer, spots that
possess few or none of the requisites for its peculiar needs,
and thus it has been obtained on Bear Island (lat. 74 30) by
Dr. Malmgren and at Malta by Mr. Wright. Its appearance
therefore from time to time in places equally devoid of its
natural supplies, but less far removed than those just named
from its proper haunts, is easily explained, and in such districts
it does the best it can to obtain a living from the seeds
of various plants. An unsuccessful attempt has been made
to regard examples obtained in the Balearic Isles (where it
seems to be resident) as forming a distinct species (Journ.
fur Orn. 1864, p. 224). It occurs also not unfrequently in
Sicily and in the Cyclades. Further to the eastward it is
found across the whole of that part of Asia which is included
in the Palsearctic Region—suitable districts being
understood, from Smyrna to Japan, including the northern
portions of China and Formosa—though indeed Chinese and
Japanese specimens have been described as differing specifically
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 437). Throughout this wide
tract, however, there are few places in which its appearance
can be deemed constant. Governed as its movements are by
the imperious necessity of finding food, and food of a kind
that frequently fails in any particular locality, it roves from
one country to another as regardless of latitude and longitude
as of heat and cold, breeding, as may be gathered from
what has been above said, wherever it happens to be when
the season comes round. Yet like almost every other animal
it has its geographical bounds. So far as we are aware,
neither Iceland nor any of the Atlantic islands knows its
presence, though there seems no reason why so great a
traveller may not find its way thither. The Great Desert
of Africa of course puts a limit to its wanderings, and the
firless plains of Egypt equally discourage its approach.
The steppes of Tartary likewise interpose themselves as a
barrier to its southern progress in Asia, and in the Himalayas
we find its place taken by a distinct though nearly-
allied form, Loxia Hmalayana. The common Crossbill
of the New World has long been separated from that of the
Old, and its separation, as L. americana, seems to be justifiable,
on account of its smaller bill and, in the males, more
scarlet plumage.
VOL. II. D D