22 BRITISH BIRDS. 



In Norfolk. 



Crossbills still (April 28tli) seem numerous in the neighbour- 

 hood of Castle Rising. On March 26tli a keeper found a nest 

 and showed it to me. It was about two feet from the top of 

 a very tall spruce, and was fully seventy feet from the ground. 

 The nest was a large one, made principally of dry grass and 

 decayed wood, and contained four fresh eggs. It appears to me 

 that most of the Crossbills are not breeding as they still seem 

 to be in flocks. N. Tracey. 



In Sussex. 



Some Crossbills seem to have nested in the Uckfield district. 

 I saw one young bird being fed on April 29th and two on 

 May 5tli at Uckfield- Robt. Morris. 



IRRUPTION OF CROSSBILLS.* 



Cheshire. — A number have frequented the fir- woods in one 

 portion of Delamere Forest all the A\'inter and spring. I 

 saw about a score so late as May 2nd, but can get no 

 evidence of nesting {T. A. Coward). 



Kent. — None since April 1st at Edenbridge [H. H. Farwig). 

 On May 16th I saw a flock of about eighteen in a wood 

 near Tenterden that I had not previously visited (A^. F. 

 Ticehurst). 



Norfolk. — None since April 26th at Keswick {J. H. Gurney). 



Northumberland. — Over a dozen have been seen for several 

 weeks past (May 6th) at Blaydon-on-TjTie [J. Clark, Jnr.). 



Surrey. — A small party passing overhead on April 2nd near 

 Dormans, and evidence of more .by the quantity of cones 

 strewn beneath a belt of pines close by {H. H. Farwig). 



Sussex. — Several flocks of from fifteen to twenty birds on 

 May 1st in Ashdown Forest {H. H. Farwig). 



BIRDS FEEDING ON FIR-CONES. 



As I keep squirrels and require several bushels of fir-cones 

 during the winter months, I hapj^en to know that in the 

 neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells the Scotch fir has been 

 unusually fruitful during 1909-10. During the winter of 

 1908-09 both fir-cones and larch-cones were scarce. The 

 April snow and frosts in 1908 entirely destroyed the larch- 

 fruit in some districts, and the same may have happened 

 With regard to many of the young Scotch firs. 



* For previous notes on this subject, see Vol. III. Index. Only 

 records of nesting, departure, marked decrease or increase, or arrival 

 in a new locality are now required. 



