Frank got out a box containing knife-blades of various sizes fastened into handles of wood, two pairs of scissors, pliers, and other tools useful or necessary for skinning or stuffing birds; while Jimmy Brett took down a book on birds, and turned to the account of the crossbill; and as Frank was busy at one end of the table skinning the birds, Jimmy at the other end kept up a running commentary on his book for the benefit of his friend, in the following manner:—
"There is a lot about crossbills here, Frank. They are rare, but they have been found at different times and in different months of the year in many parts of the kingdom. They vary greatly in size as well as in colour, according to age, sex, and the time of the year. They are yellow, red, green, or brown at different times, so if it were not for their cross bills it would be rather hard to distinguish them. There are two pictures of them here; one has a rose-coloured back and red-brown wings, and the other has a green back and brown wings. The beaks curve and cross each other, and appear to be particularly suited for breaking open the cones of fir-trees and picking out the seeds, and they will cut open apples and other fruit to get at the pips. They come generally in the winter, but often stay until the spring, and then they may breed here, although it is very seldom that their nests are found. They breed in Norway and Sweden, and nest very early in the year, and their nest seems to be like a missel thrush's, and is placed in fir-trees. Their eggs are white with just a touch of blue or green, and spotted with brown spots."
Crossbill.
"There, that is all that seems to be worth noticing, but we have got a prize worth having. I am afraid they will not stop and breed. There are not enough pine woods about, and they appear to be fond of going from place to place, so that it is not likely they will be here in the spring."
While he talked, Frank quickly and skilfully skinned and cleaned the birds, and then he painted the inside of the skins with a solution of corrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine, which is a most excellent preservative and much more cleanly to handle than arsenical soap. Then he loosely stuffed them with cotton-wool, smoothed the feathers, and placed them on a shelf to dry.
"Now, Frank," said Jimmy plaintively, "what are you going to do with that young larch-tree? I have been very patient all this time, so you may as well tell me now."
"Well, Jimmy, I have thought of a grand idea. You are the inventive genius of us two, and I usually carry things out; but I have invented something now which we must both help to carry out. What do you think of having a yacht, Jimmy—a large yacht, so that we could sail all over the Broad, and down the rivers, and all over the country, and fish and birdnest, and naturalize, and shoot wildfowl to our hearts' content? What do you think of that, my boy?"
"It would be an awfully jolly thing, no doubt; but as far as Hickling Broad goes, it is too shallow for any yacht. Why, except in the Channel, it is not more than four feet deep in any part, large as it is; and parts of it are only two feet deep, so that if we had a yacht we should stick fast directly. Besides, how are we to get a yacht?"