United States or Grenada ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They are also tardy in getting back to their piney homes sometimes, and choose their mates on the journey, unlike most birds. Very often a thoughtless couple are obliged to camp out and build a home wherever they happen to be, so that their nests have been found in several of the New England States." "Is there only one kind of Crossbill in North America?" asked Rap.
Here also in the mesquite and giant cactus were thrush and Western meadow-larks and mocking-birds mimicking the call of the cat-bird. Down in the brush by the river was the happy little water-ousel, as cheerful in his way as the dumpy-built musical canyon wren. The Mexican crossbill appeared to have little fear of the migrating Northern shrike.
My first acquaintance with the Crossbill was in Sark on the 25th of June, 1866, when I saw a very fine red-plumaged bird in a small fir-plantation in the grounds of the Lord of Sark. It was very tame, and allowed me to approach it very closely. I did not see any others at that time amongst the fir-trees, though no doubt a few others were there.
And then the fashion of making natural history collections has much extended of recent years: so much so, that many blame too ardent collectors for the increasing rarity of birds like the crossbill, waxwing, hoopoe, golden oriole, and others which seem to have once visited this country more commonly than at present.
Thus the turtle-dove is revered as a bird which spoke kind words to our Lord on the cross; and, similarly, the swallow is said to have perched upon the cross and to have commiserated with Him; while the legend of the crossbill relates how its beak became twisted in endeavouring to withdraw the nails, and how to this day it bears upon its plumage the red blood-stains from the cross.
And the story of how the robin tried to loosen one of the cruel nails so that the blood from the poor Saviour drenched his breast and stained it red for evermore, and of that other bird, the crossbill, who pecked at the nails until his beak became crossed. He could listen for ever to the tale of St. Cuthbert who was fed by ravens, of St. Martin who cut off his cloak and gave it to a beggar, of St.
The size and shape may vary, as a Canadian axe differs from a Scotch axe; some are short and stout and have a sharp edge for shelling seeds; some are longer and fine-pointed, for picking worms and caterpillars out of their hiding-places; some a little hooked at their points, and one, that of the crossbill, with points crossed for picking the small seeds out of fir-cones; but all are practically the same tool.
The Crossbill did not appear at that time to be very well known in Guernsey, as neither the bird-catcher nor the people in whose gardens the birds were had ever seen them before or knew what they were.
"Make a burrow in the snow, perhaps," said Dodo. "Go into a haystack or under a shed," said Nat. "Or a hole in a tree," added Rap. "No, the Crossbill does not place his nest in any of these ways. He chooses a thick evergreen tree, and upon the fork of one of the branches makes a little platform of rubbish to support the nest.
The Crossbill is an occasional visitant to all the Islands, and sometimes in considerable numbers, but, as in England, it is perfectly irregular as to the time of year it chooses for its visits. Mr. MacCulloch writes me word "The Crossbill is most uncertain in its visits. Many years will sometimes pass without a single one being heard of. When they do come it is generally in large flocks.
Word Of The Day