336 Mr. Joseph I. S. Whitaker on the 



have not already done so, and there find an abundant supply 

 of food awaiting them in the tardily ripened cones. 



With regard to the extent of last year's migration, it may 

 be said to have embraced practically the greater part of 

 Europe, having reached southward as far as the Mediterra- 

 nean, expanding laterally on both sides, east and west, 

 almost as far, perhaps, as the limits of our Continent. The 

 migration does not appear to have extended to any part of 

 North Africa, although the Italian Islands in the Mediterra- 

 nean, and even Malta, were visited by the birds in considerable 

 numbers. Thinking it likely that some of the wanderers, 

 being so near the African coast, might have crossed over to 

 Tunis, I wrote to M. Blanc of that city in July and again 

 in October, inquiring if any Crossbills had been observed 

 there, but the reply on both occasions was in the negative- 

 Had any of the birds crossed over to Tunis I think that 

 they would not have escaped the notice of the sharp- 

 eyed Arab bird-catchers ; and they could hardly have been 

 confused with the local subspecies, L. curvirostra poliogyna, 

 which inhabits the higher mountains of the interior and 

 does not approach the coast. 



Judging from the reports so far received, the migration, 

 although fairly general throughout Europe, seems to have 

 been more conspicuous in the central and eastern portion of 

 the Continent than further west, but, looking at the map, this 

 seems only natural. What at first sight strikes us as rather 

 remarkable is that the small islands, both those off our 

 Scottish coast, as well as those in the Mediterranean, 

 some of them particularly bare of vegetation, should have 

 been visited by the birds to the extent they have been. This, 

 however, is not so surprising as at first it would appear, for 

 naturally there is more concentration, and less diffusion, of 

 the arriving birds on the small islands than on the large, or 

 on the mainland, and they are less likely to pass unobserved 

 than when spread over a larger expanse of country. 



Although met with in almost every description of country, 

 whether mountainous or plain, the pine and fir districts have 

 naturally attracted the wanderers more than others, and 



