4) / LOXIA CURVIRO STRA, 1 Common Crossbill. mn. Loxia curvirostra, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 299. crucirostra, Pall. Crucirostra abietum, Meyer. major, Brehm. Coccothraustes curvirostra, Klein, Hist. Av., p- 96. INDEPENDENTLY of the British Islands, 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 I have never seen examples from the Himalayas, and do 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, in Majorca (Journ. fur Ornith. 1862, p- 206). The late Captain Loche states that it is only occasionally met with in Algeria; but Mr. O. Salvin, in the ‘Ibis’ (vol. 1. | | out of the nest. which is so common in Japan is the same species. not believe that it is found so far south. Is of common occurrence, even in summer, ». SLO) mentions having met with a brood just The rich colouring and foreign appearance which distinguish the Crossbill from the re birds have occasioned its being noticed from the earliest periods ; for, st of our native long before the times of Ray and Linneus, records of its appearance in large flocks have been made. “TI have been favoured,” says Mr. Yarrell, “ by the Rev. L. B. Larking, of Ryarsh Vicarage, near Maidstone, with a copy of an old MS. which refers to this subject in the following terms :—‘ 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 kernells only of these 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 colour ; the cock 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 bird ; and the thinge most to be 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 unitl they were stricken downe; moreover, they would abide the throweing at them insomuch that 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 clean fallen. ‘They were very good meate. *¢ Tn Queen Elizabeth’s time, a flock of birds came into Cornwall about harvest, a little bigger than a Sparrow, 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 great spoil among the apples.’ “In June and July 1791, a bird-catcher at Bath caught one hundred pair, which were generally sold for five shillings each. In the winter of 1806, a flock inhabited for a time a clump of firs in a deep sheltered valley at Penllergare in Glamorganshire. In 1821, flocks were seen in various parts of the country, particularly in Oxford, Worcester, and Warwick shires. In 1828 they appeared in W estmoreland. In the winter of 1829 they were numerous 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 formerly, by the greater abundance of fr