Great Invasion of Crossbills in 1909 339 



of a very few cases, all the Crossbills that have come to 

 our shores across the North Sea belong to the typical 

 continental form, L. curvirostra, or L. curvirostra typica 

 for those who adopt trinomials. Occasional examples of the 

 Two-barred Crossbill (L. bifasciata) have been met with 

 among the flocks of the commoner species, and a few spe- 

 cimens of this more eastern Crossbill are recorded as having 

 been obtained, notably at Fair Isle and in the Flannan Islands. 



The greater number of the recorded occurrences of Cross- 

 bills in the British Isles having been carefully detailed in 

 ' British Birds/ it is hardly necessary to recapitulate them 

 here. 



France. — As was to be expected, last year's invasion of 

 Crossbills extended westward to France, although its ex- 

 pansion and numerical importance there were apparently 

 less considerable than further eastward and throughout the 

 Central European countries. It also seems to have been 

 somewhat more marked in the east of France itself than in 

 the west, but this perhaps is not surprising. 



To the kindness of Dr. Louis Bureau, Director of the 

 Natural History Museum at Nantes, I am indebted for the 

 following interesting particulars regarding the occurrence of 

 the Crossbill in some of the French departments. 



Cdte-d'Or. — According to M. Paul Paris, Crossbills were 

 first observed by him in this district about the middle of 

 August, and frequently after that date. On the 18th of 

 October he received an example of the species, in the flesh, 

 from Dijon. 



Aube. — Crossbills are reported as having been observed in 

 this district about the end of August. Both here and in 

 Cote- d' Or the species is of irregular passage, and had not 

 been previously observed for three or four years. 



Haute-Saone. — M. Paris received three examples, in the 

 flesh, from this district about the end of September, and saw 

 a flock of Crossbills settled on a fir-tree opposite the Autun 

 Museum on the 11th of October. 



Haute-Marne. — M. Paris received an example from this 

 district on the 27th of October, from which date until the 



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