young birds, were seen in Dumfries-shire in June 1888- or ’84-.
Mr. Heysham says there were flocks of Crossbills about Carlisle
in June 1837 ; and twenty .were killed, by one person in
Hampshire during the first week of 1888. ^,/Ehesc
summerdloeks are ascertained" ®|j be family-par-ties; ex p o sed
of the parent birds and young ones,;, of .th^year>fhe. old
birds arc undergoing the;,usual moult-;'which comme||WaU
most immediately, after incubation the young, birds: of fcEe.
year are in their pestling plumage, and do net .jcompletejftei'r1
first moult-or change till October,"and sometimes still la£sjk.
The, visits of this singular species to our shores happen a t
irregular periods, sometimes with intervals of many” years-
and some eurfeupc®ec®fdsTp# the-appearance. m
1254 and in 1593 are still-preserved-. hay^|beeit favoured‘
by the Rev. L . B.- Larking- of Ryarih r^carage;'.;.iiear Maid^
stone, with a copy from an o ld rl^ ^ which refers to';t|j^||ab-
je c t in the following terms-:— “ That the yeere:'15
greate and exceeding, yeere^of apples ; and .there/^fe^refat'e
plenty of Strang birds, that showed „themselves at the'-tirntf
the apples were full rype, who feddeuppon the. > onel ƒ
of those apples; and haveihge'a biff.with one beakd hryirhinge
over the other, which-would presenflp-bor©' ar greate h d ^ itf
the apple, -and make way:* to the?kenrolls r they^ere of the.
bigne^e'nf a Bullfinch, tbehenne right-like the h^me^oC-the
Bullfinch in coulour; the cocke a- very .glorious? bird, in a
manner al redde "or yelloWe' on the bre&V bateke* and head.
The oldest man living never heard or reade of anyisuch - like
b ird ; and the thinge most to bee noted was, that it seemed
they came out of some country not inhabited ; for that they?
at the first would abide shooting at them, either' with pellet,
bowe, or other engine, and not remove till ,they:wefe‘.strickeu
downe ; moreover,- they would abide the throweing at them,
in so much as diverse were stricken downe and killed with
often throweing a t them with apples. They came when the
apples wheré type, and wént âwaÿ when the apples were cleane
fallen. Theywcfe. very good meate.” Y
From a note in the' last edition óf Bewick’s History of
British Birds, it woule^uppear. that Crossbills were numerous
and- visited-' other parts of England also; besides thé county of
Kent; in the,year 1598; ?
J . Childrèyënrî hisi Britannia Baéopmà, ■ or The Natural
Rarietieg 'of 'England, l^oftand« and Wjdii; published about
si£ y fears-before Mérrett’s Pinax rerum naturalium Britan*
jBfâtvm, sây^#pà;g'ie>®|— ‘‘yin Q,üe|à Elizabeth’s time à
fl-ö’ck lé f Bird^caiïnd*’uMfoé Cornwall: about harvest, a little
Rigger then „a sparfow^which had bus thwarted crosswise at
and with these» they would,^-Stfffilan apple-un two at
one snap, leating-onelj? the kèfhèls“; and they made7 a great
spoil bmobg the apples?^! %
p* Indfune and, July-11791, a blrdcatchèr at Bath caught one
hundred pair, wHieh/werhtgoneTally-sold for five shillings each.
In the winf^ipf''-1*80'6/ à' flefek inhabited for a time a clump
of firs ini a deepfsheltlrbd wâlley at ' Peftllergare in Glamor-1
gan&hirév~as I leaffr;: b p f a cdmmunication from L. W.
DSlwyn^ Esq.who' has favoured nié’with" many ornithological
nof#; In' 1821,’ Crossbills were4, numëïoügÿ and flocks were
IFdeil in various parts of ■'the country, particularly in Oxfordshire,
Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. In 1828 they
appeared in Westmorland?,'tin* the winter of ,1829 they were
numerous' in Yorkshire, and havé. beèh, 1 might almost say,
plentiful in varioüs parts of England from the wintef of 1885
to the- present time (January1 1889); probably induced to remain
longèr in this country now than formerly by the greater
àbundaiiee of fir plantations, to which they particularly resort
f 5 avail themselves: of thcBseèds of the numerous cones, which
are their principal food during winter. In theftionthsof July
and August their visits, aë -already noticed; are made to those
orchard countries where apples abound, the kernels or pips of