FRINGILLIDAE—CROSSBILL.
125
green " plumage at Epping on March 9th, 1833. He adds : " It is the only
one I ever saw here, and was evidently a very old bird from the toughness of the
fibres, &c. Later, he says, (10) "A small number of Crossbill; came here about
the middle of August [1835], but remained only a few days. I shot three or four,
and have one alive." Writing on Nov. 7th, 1838, he says (10) :
" About the middle of July we were visited by hundreds of Crossbills, but at
that time the plumage was so bad they were not worth preserving. Many of them
were nestlings. Some yet remain, and I killed four very fine ones in our garden
a few days since. I have taken infinite pains to ascertain the changes of plumage
and have sent a long history to Yarrell. One thing is certain : that some young
males at least become yellow at the first autumnal moult. Two males I killed a
few days since, one is bright clear yellow, the other fine light red. A bird I
have alive has just moulted. He was very red : now he is quite yellow. They
are very puzzling."
In June, 1839, he writes (10) :
" I have shot several very fine Crossbills this spring, and obtained a nest and
six eggs from a tall fir-tree in Lord Frankfort's plantations close to our town. The
nest very closely resembles the Greenfinch's, but has twigs of larch interwoven
with the outer rim. The eggs also strikingly resemble those of the Greenfinch,
but are rather larger. Hewitson's figure is very bad. I should hardly think it
was a Crossbill's egg from which it was taken."
On Sept. 20th, he says "a few Crossbills occasionally pass over here. I shot
three in our garden a day or two since." On Jan. 15th, 1840, he writes (10):
" The Crossbills seem to have quite left." Again in the following March he says
(10) :
" I believe the Crossbills have entirely quitted England. They remained here
just a year. I saw the first in June, 1838, and they were numerous till May,
1839, and a few remained through June, since which time I have not heard or
seen one at liberty, nor can I hear of any one who has. I have a pair alive, and
always in fine weather hang one out in the garden, and, did any pass over, he
would be sure to call them. Last autumn [?] they were daily in the garden,
and I shot many very fine ones. * * * It is very singular they should arrive in
such multitudes and all at once disappear. It cannot be want of food, as that is
plentiful enough."
However, on May 3rd, 1840, he says (10) :
" On Tuesday last, as I was walking in our garden, I was surprised to hear the
call of the Crossbill, not having heard or seen one for nearly a year. I soon saw
five of them flying over, and wanting a pair of them for a friend, I shot at them
and killed a male and a female. I regretted afterwards that I did so, as the
female was evidently sitting, from the state of her breast."
Again, on Mar. 25th, 1841, Doubleday says : " I shot a single female Cross-
bill last Saturday. I have not seen one before for months."
King, writing about 1840, of the district around Sudbury, describes it (20) as
" Rare : an occasional visitant." A male, entirely of a " dark brick-red," was
shot in Feb., 1862, near Walton-on-the-Naze (Bree—23.8033). At Harwich, it
is occasionally seen during severe winters (Kerry). Mr. Stacey of Dunmow
preserved a pair shot near thereabout the year 1881, and Mr. Offin shot several at
Rayleigh the same year. Mr. Fitch has once seen it at Maldon. Mr. Buxton says
(47.87) a pair " nested in some firs at the Bower, close by Epping Railway Station."
He refers to Doubleday's nest, mentioned above. Mr. Scruby preserved a speci-
men (the only one he ever received), shot a few years back by a keeper in Ongar
Park Wood. " W " of Romford, states that (19. 9) " several arrive annually in the
plantations at Whitley, in the parish of Birdbrook," from which it seems likely
that they bred there in 1838.