cases occur from time to time, and, as mentioned by Mr. G.
J. D. Lees (Zool. 1877, p. 254), a nest with four young was
found on March 16th of the present year in a fir on the outskirts
of Bournemouth in Hampshire. According to information
collected by Mr. More it has been known to breed
in the following English counties besides those already indicated
:—Devon, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex, Herts, Leicester
and Cumberland. Bedford may be added to this list.*
The visits of this species to various parts of our islands
happen at irregular periods, sometimes with intervals of
many years as regards any particular place; and some
curious records of the appearance of large flocks have been
preserved. The earliest known of these is by the chronicler
Matthew Paris and has reference to the year 1251, thus :—
Anni quoq; sub ejusdem circulo, temporibus fructuum,
quaedam aves mirabiles, quae nunquam in Anglia antea vide-
bantur, in pomeriis maxime apparuerunt, alaudis parum ma-
jores, pomorum grana, & non aliud de eisdem pomis com-
edentes : unde dampnose nimis arbores suis fructibus vidu-
arunt. Habebant autem partes rostri cancellatas, per quas po-
ma quasi forcipe vel cultello dividebant. Partes insuper pomorum,
quas relinquebant, fuerant quasi veneno intoxicatse.” f
In illustration of the foregoing, Wats, in 1640 the editor
of Matthew’s work, appended (Vita duorum Offarum &c. p.
263) a Latin version of an account of a similar visitation,!
* Mr. More included Norfolk in bis list, apparently by mistake for Suffolk, as
Miss Gurney’s record had not then been published. The instance is not solitary,
for Lord Lilford has stated his belief to the Editor that it has several times bred
in West Norfolk. As regards Suffolk, besides the nests mentioned by Sheppard
and Whitear long ago, the Editor recollects the species being so continuously
common for about two consecutive years (1846-48) at and about Elveden that he
has not a doubt of its having bred there at that time, though, no nest was found.
I t did not remain a resident in the district.
f Thanks to the good offices of his friend Mr. Lewis, F.S. A. the Editor has
enjoyed the privilege of consulting the original MS. of this work now in the
library of Corpus-Christi College, Cambridge. The page containing the passage
quoted above (fol. 252) has in the margin a figure purporting to be a representation
of one of the wonderful birds, but it is rude and not characteristic.
I Wats, it may be remarked, invites his readers to judge whether the species
of bird be not the Loxia of Gesner and Aldrovandus.
supplied to him in English by Sir Roger Twysden. The
collections of that antiquary subsequently passed into the
possession of the late Rev. L. B. Larking of Ryarsh, near
Maidstone, who favoured the Author with a copy of the
document * in the following terms :—W- That the yeere 1593
was a greate and exceeding yeere of apples; and there were
greate plenty of strang birds, that shewed themselves at the
time the apples were full rype, who fedde uppon the kernells
onely of those apples, and haveinge a bill with one beake
wrythinge over the other, which would presently bore a
greate hole in the apple, and make way to the kernells;
they were of the bignesse of a Bullfinch, the henne right
like the henne of the Bullfinch in coulour; the cocke a very
glorious bird, in a manner al redde or yellowe on the brest,
backe, and head. The oldest man living never heard or
reade of any such 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 were stricken downe; moreover, they
would abide the throweing at them, in so much as diverse
were stricken downe and killed with often throweing at them
with apples. They came when the apples were rype, and
went away when the apples were cleane fallen. They were
very good meate.”
It may have been this visitation that Childrey mentions in
his ‘Britannia Baconica: or, The Natural Rarities of England,
Scotland, & Wales ’ (London : 1661. p. 13), as follows—
“ In Q. Elizabeths time a flock of Birds came into Cornwall
about Harvest, a little bigger than a Nparrow, which had
bils thwarted crosswise at the end, and with these they
would cut an apple in two at one snap, eating onely the
Kernels ; and they made a great spoil among the apples.”
From the many accounts of this species given in different
* The Editor greatly regrets that he has been unable to see this document so
as to ascertain its approximate date and possibly its author. Mr. J. W. Larking,
brother of the gentleman named above, has kindly but ineffectually searched for
it. Bewick in his later editions gave a retranslation of it into English from the
Latin version of Wats.
VOL. II. C C