VOL. VI.] LETTERS. 231 



The reason I included the Hawfinch in my comparison is that they 

 have ahnost deserted parts of Kent within the last five or six years 

 where they had previously bred annually, and are now breeding in 

 considerable numbei-s in Lancashire in parts where they had not 

 previously bred. 



Mr. Meares accuses me of studiously avoiding to substantiate my 

 assertions by facts. May I be allowed to point out that I have not 

 made any definite assertions : I simply made comparisons, and had he 

 studied my original note and my reply to his first letter more carefully, 

 he could not have failed to see this. I hope Mr. Jourdain has satisfied 

 Mr. Meares in regard to facts, if not I shall be most happy to supply 

 authenticated records of sporadic nesting (according to hLs own 

 definition) both in regard to the Hobby and Grasshopper- Warbler, but 

 I do not consider it is fundamental to the question. In regard to the 

 former species, Mr. Meares will find several sporadic cases of nesting 

 in the Birds of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which he studiously 

 avoided quoting, classing them as " wholly inconclusive," or " isolated," 

 which is surely the same as " irregular in occurrence as the result of 

 nomadic tendencies" (i.e. sporadic). Further the number of these 

 cases exceeds the number of those forming the so-called " conclusive " 

 evidence, quoted from the same work. Mr. Meares has mentioned the 

 clouded-yellow butterfly ; I may say, that it is a well-known fact 

 to most entomologists that in some parts of Kent this insect may be 

 taken every year. It is an exact parallel to the matter imder discussion : 

 C. edusa can be found in some spots every year, but in a good or 

 favourable season much more plentifully and consequently with wider 

 distribution ; the same point holds good, to a certain extent, with all 

 our migrant species of birds. 



My original comparison was, " I do not consider it (the Crossbill) 

 is more sporadic in its nesting than many other British birds such as 

 Hobby, Hawfinch, Grasshopper-Warbler, etc.," and on the evidence 

 concerning Crossbills that was at my disposal at the time, and which 

 is given above, this is fully borne out. 



P. F. BUNYARD. 



[Mr. Bunyard does not give any details of the evidence he has col- 

 lected to show that the Crossbill " has always bred in vSuffolk and 

 possibly in Norfolk," and the statements of keepers mentioned by 

 Mr. Bunyard on p. 3G4 of Vol. IV. are not to my mind sufficiently 

 convincing. With regard to the remark quoted by Mr. Bmiyard, 

 as made by Mr. Upcher, this was not founded on any observations 

 made by Mr. Upcher himself, and on my appealing to him for further 



