,LOXIA CURYI ROSTRA, Linn.
Common Crossbill.
Loxia curvirostra, Linn. Syst. Na t., tom. i. p. 299.
— crucirostra, Pall.
Crucirostra dbietum, Meyer.
-----——-major, Brehm.
Coccothraustes curvirostra, K lei.^ H ist. At., p. 96.
, :toEPENDENTi.v of the British Islaads, Norway, Sweden, and Northern Germany, the Common Crossbill
is found throughout the Russian Empire and Northern China; and it is probable that the bird of this form
which is so common in Japan is the same species. I have never seen examples from the Himalayas, and do
not believe that it is found so far south. In France, Switzerland, and the Tyrol its numbers are about
upon a par with those in the British Islands. Lieutenant Alexander von Homeyer says that a Crossbill
which he distinguishes as Crucirostra curvirostra, var. balearica, is of common occurrence, even in summer,
in Majorca (Joum. fur Ornith. 1862, p. 256). The late Captain Loche states that it is only occasionally
met with in Algeria; but Mr. O. Salvin, in the ‘ Ibis ’ (vol. i. p. 315) mentions having met with a brood just
out of the nest.
The rich colouring and foreign appearance which d istinguish the Crossbill from the rest of our native
bird? have occasioned its being noticed from tb dw lf e s t periods; for, long before the times of Ray and
LiMttB»*, records of its appearance in large flock^gpe been made. “ J have been favoured,” says Mr.
Yarrell, “ by the Rev. L. B. Larking, of Ryarsh Viclrage, near Maidstone, with a copy of an old MS. which
referfe 'to this subject in the following 0 m s * That the yeere 1593 was a great and exceeding yeere of
apples ; and there were great plenty of strange birds, that shewed themselves at the time the apples were
rype, who fedde upon the kernel}* onlfjpf these apples, and haveinge aibill with one beake wry thinge over
the other, which would presently bore aureate hole in the apple and make way to the kernells; they were
of the Ugutm* «f a Bullfinch, the henne right like the heune of the Bullfinch in colour; the cock a very
glorious bird m a manner, al redde or yeUowe on the brest, backe, and head'. The oldest man living never
h-like bird; and the thinge most to be noted was, that it seemed they came out of
ed ; for that they at the first would abide shooting at them, either with pellet,
d not remove unitl they were stricken downe; moreover, they would abide the
much that diverse were stricken downe and killed with often throweing at
came when the apples were rype, and went away when the apples were clean
food meate.
i1* time, a flock of birds came into Cornwall about harvest, a little bigger than a
thwarted crosswise at the end, and with these they would cut an apple in two at
heard or read« of any sac
some country not inhabit
bowe, or other engine, an
throweing at them iuso
them with apples. They
fallen. They were very t
“ * In Queen Eliaabetl
Sparrow, which had bils
one snap, eating onely the k
" In June and July 1791,
five shillings each. In the winter
valley at Penllergare in Gl&morg
particularly in Oxford, Worcester,
els; and they made great spoil among the apples.’
bird-catcher at Bath caught one hundred pair, which were generally sold For
tr o f 1806, a flock inhabited for a time a clump of firs in a deep sheltered
•Kanshire. In 1821, flocks were seen in various parts of the country,
mid Warwick shires. In 1828 they appeared in Westmoreland. In
the winter of 1829 they were mimrr.«, in Yorkshire, and have been, I might almost say, plentiful in
various parts of England from the winter of 1835 to the present time (January 1839), probably induced to
remain longer in this country now than forme*, by the greater abundance of fir plantations, to which
they particularly resort to avail Ihemselu of l e seeds of the numerous cones, which are their principal
food during winter.” , . . .
It is quite evident from the above account, that the Crossbill has at various times been very plentiful .
England; and that it still pays irregular visits to each and every one of our counties is known to all
ornithologists ; we have also many proofs that it breeds here. The Duke of Argyll mforms me that the bird
i, seen, both in spring and winter, on the Dee. Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden informed
Mr Yarrell that a pair made a nest on an apple-tree in a garden in that town, in the month of hbu
or 1835 • and Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, in their Catalogneof the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk,
on instance of its nesting in the latter county. Mr. Alfred Newton tells me that a flock frequent« the
plantations al Elveden in Suffolk for about three years, and no doubt bred there, though he did not succee
in finding a nest. Mr. Stevenson remark, that a pair, killed in Norfolk in 1856, had probably bred there.
The late Mr. St. John, in his -Tour in Sntheriandshire,’ says, “ Whilst fishing in the upper part of the
Il i i