2oS The hi sh Naturalist. 



months' absence on my own part) during some weeks of 

 December and January. By New Year's Day or thereabouts 

 several males had begun their song, and I hoped they would 

 breed. However I left the place too soon to make sure, and 

 when I returned, late in Jul} 7 , all the Crossbills had vanished. 

 From the somewhat recent aspect of the litter they had left in 

 two or three spots, I thought it likely enough that some had 

 stayed through the nesting-season. 



Between July, 1893, and July, 1894, though not at Ballyhyland 

 except now and then for a few days at a time, I think I am 

 safe in savins: there were no Crossbills resident here. In 

 June last a few Larch-cones marked with their recognizable 

 imprint suggested that a family party had travelled by and 

 snatched a meal en passant, but nothing more. I was there- 

 fore agreeably surprised, after coming down here on the 

 evening of July 28th, in the present year, to see next day four 

 Crossbills fly across the avenue. Going into the woods on the 

 day following, I immediately came on another part} 7 of three. 

 Shortly after a flock of some thirty passed overhead, and 

 numerous patches of ground strewn with the recently broken 

 green cones of the Larch plainly told that Crossbills had re- 

 turned in full force. In fact it was very soon apparent that 

 their forces had much increased since 1892, for though most 

 of the parties observed were small (tw r os, threes, fours, fives, 

 &c), the wild " chip, chip, chip" of the bird was continually 

 calling attention to its presence ; as a little company flitted 

 from one feeding station to another; and it was quite impossible 

 to form an estimate of the number of such small family parties, 

 as I found them in every plantation in the neighbourhood. 



These details may seem dry and unsuggestive, but they are 

 not, I believe, without their bearing on the history of the 

 Crossbill's migrations. During the summer of 1890 the harvest 

 of Larch-cones at Ballyhyland was abundant, and the birds 

 w T hich I saw in the course of the ensuing winter were evidently 

 making these cones their staple diet. In 1891, on the contrary, 

 the Larches very generally failed to produce cones, — as the 

 Beeches, the same year, totally failed to bear mast,— and 

 though Pine-cones were as plentiful as usual we had no 

 Crossbills that season. In 1892 the crop of green Larch-cones 

 was abundant, and the Crossbills returned, remaining the 

 autumn and winter, and possibly the spring. But in 1893 



