Crossbill—for so it has come to be called in English—have
been recorded as occurring in England, occasionally in Scotland,
and once also in Wales. Mr. Harting (Hanclb. Br. B.
pp. 114, 115) has carefully compiled a list of these notices,
but the critical ornithologist will with justice forbear from
trusting all of them. As already stated the common Crossbill
varies somewhat in size, and it may be fairly presumed
—there being little but size to distinguish the two forms—
that a fine specimen of the ordinary bird has been occasionally
set down by a sanguine collector, without any desire of
deception on his part, for the rarer kind. Enough to say
now that this last has been indubitably taken several times
in Britain, for scarcely any useful end would be attained
by investigating, even if that were possible, each reputed
instance. The Editor has more than once had brought
under his notice birds, supposed to be Parrot-Crossbills
which were certainly not such, but he has seen sufficient
examples, about which no reasonable doubt could be entertained,
to justify the retention of the bird in the present
work. Among these are two in the Museum of the University
of Cambridge—one, apparently a hen, certified by a
label in Mr. Jenyns’s handwriting as having been killed at
Blythburg in Suffolk in 1818, and the second, in the cock’s
red plumage, which was obtained of Mr. Head, formerly a
bird-stuffer at Bury St. Edmunds, and said by him to have
been killed at Saxham in the same county, in November
1850. In the possession of Mr. Thornhill of Riddlesworth
in Norfolk, is also another red male, shot at or near that
place a few years before (Zool. p. 3145). Other specimens
are doubtless just as trustworthy though the Editor cannot
speak of them from personal knowledge. Of these may be
mentioned one said by Blyth, in his edition of White’s
‘ Selborne ’ (p. 160, note), to have been shot in the New
Forest in the autumn of 1835 or 1836. Several examples,
as stated in the former edition of this work, were brought to
the London market in March 1838, and were eagerly bought
by those. who were aware of their rarity. Two of these I
examined. Mr. Bartlett was the purchaser of a third, and
I am indebted to him for being able to figure its sternum to
show its difference in size from that of the common bird.
Mr. Bond possesses three examples* one shot with others out
of a flock near Lymington in March, 1842, and two obtained
near Christchurch twenty years later. Newman saw one,
said tq have been killed at Harrow January 21st, 1850
(Zool. p. 2770); Doubleday records (Zool. ,p. 7759) three
shot near Epping, September 20th, 1861; and Dr. Bree
(Zool. p. 8032) had three brought to him, February
21st, 1862, which had been just killed near Colchester.
According to Mr. Harting also a pair were shot at
Southgate, in Middlesex, in November 1864, of which the
male is now in Mr. J. H. Gurney’s collection. In Scotland
two were obtained, according to Jardine, in Boss (prior to
1833), one of which came into his possession and the other
into Selby’s, where it served to illustrate that gentleman s
work as well as the later editions of Bewick’s. Mr. Gray
says he has a very characteristic specimen, which was killed
with a stone out of a flock on the shores of Wemyss Bay m
the spring of 1862. About the determination of all these
examples no doubt need be felt.
The habits of this bird, so far as has been ascertained,
agree so closely with those of the commoner Crossbill that
little needs to be said of them; but it is to be observed that
in the parts of Sweden where it has been known to breed,
its appearance scarcely ever coincides with that of Loxia
curvirostra, and it is always the rarer of the two, feeding,
according to Wheelwright who is herein corroborated by
Taczanovski, more upon the seeds of the Scotch fir, while
the smaller form is said to prefer those of the spruce.
According to the Editor’s experience the manners of the
two birds do-pnot differ, and the only fact in those of the
larger form which he had not before observed m the smaller,
was its constantly coming to drink and bathe (the season
happened to be very dry) even in the foul water that had
drained from a yard in which cattle were penned.
The geographical range of the Parrot-Crossbill is much
more limited than that of the ordinary form. Its home