86 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



LESSER REDPOLE, Acanthis rufescens (Vieillot). A pair or two 

 nest, in suitable localities, in the adjoining parts of both counties, but 

 to the borough itself it is only an occasional visitor, most frequent 

 during hard weather, when I have noticed it several times about the 

 town. It used sometimes to appear in the garden, at Ravensdowne 

 so late as the middle of May ; and on the iSth of that month, 1881, 

 I saw one near the five-arch bridge at Tweedmouth, which looked as 

 if it were nesting not far off. 



TWITE, Acanthis flavirostris (Linnaeus). A winter visitant, as a 

 rule ; appearing sometimes in large flocks, usually near the sea-side. 

 On yth November iSSi I noticed it in the garden, at Ravensdowne ; 

 and on 23rd December 1887 my brother shot one, out of a mixed 

 flock of Linnets and Finches, on the meadows, just north of the town. 



On 23rd May 1877 I took a nest of this species, amongst 

 heather on the sea banks, near Spittal; but this is the only instance, 

 known to me, of its nesting in the borough. 



BULLFINCH, Pyrrhula europcea, Vieillot. A resident species, 

 and not uncommon in the adjoining districts ; but seldom strays far 

 into the borough, where there is but little to attract it. 



CROSSBILL, Loxia curvirostra, Linnaeus. Most erratic in its 

 appearance, I have noticed it in some years, in considerable numbers, 

 in North Northumberland, where it sometimes remains to breed. On 

 26th May 1895 I came upon a flock of perhaps thirty Crossbills, in 

 the fir plantations, at Heathery Tops, just outside our boundary. In 

 Berwickshire I noticed a party of about twenty frequenting the 

 woods on banks of the Whitadder, at the Retreat, on igth April 

 1889; and when the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club visited Bunkle, 

 on 5th June 1895, we were shown several specimens preserved in 

 the keeper's cottage, which had been obtained in the woods there, 

 and at Cockburn Law, within recent years. The last specimen had 

 been added to the collection only about a week before our visit, and 

 we were informed that there were still some frequenting the 

 plantations, where they had been regularly observed for some months 

 previously. 



In the middle of July 1888 a flock of about seventy appeared 

 at the lighthouse, on one of the Fame Islands, one bird succeeding 

 in killing itself against the glass ; and in this connection it is interest- 

 ing to note thatHerr Gatke reported them "in swarms," on Heligoland, 

 towards the end of June that year ("Naturalist" for 1888, p. 224). 



TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL, Loxia bifasciata (C. L. Brehm). On 

 the visit of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club to Bunkle, on 5th June 

 1895, already alluded to in connection with the last species, I was 

 agreeably surprised to find a specimen of this rare British bird, 

 among the Common Crossbills, in the gamekeeper's cottage there. 

 It had been shot, on igth December 1889, in Staneshiel covert, 



