FRINGILLIDZ. 207 
cheeks, ear-coverts, breast and belly a beautiful 
bright reddish pink: under tail-coverts white; legs, 
toes and claws purple-brown. The female differs in 
having all those parts which are pink in the male 
a dullish brown, and the grey on the back is a little 
mixed with the same colour on the margins of the 
feathers. The young birds are like the female, with- 
out the black head. 
The eggs are a light bluish green ground colour, 
with dark purple and lilac spots on the larger end. 
Common CrossBILL, Loxia curvirostra. This very 
curious bird is a rare occasional visitant in these parts, 
making its appearance, however, when it does come, 
in large flocks: its stay is not generally of very long 
duration : the last appearance* here, as far as I know, 
was about thirty years ago, when many were shot 
in various parts of the county: two of these in my 
collection were shot close by here out of a flock that 
took up its abode in some fir-trees: before that, as 
long ago as the year 1791, Colonel Montagu records 
a great invasion of these birds in the neighbourhood 
of Bath; so great were their numbers on that occa- 
sion that one bird-catcher took as many as a hundred 
pairs in the months of June and July. Yarrell 
mentions several other years, especially 1836, 1837 
and 1888, as great Crossbill years: it was in one of 
« Several of these birds made their appearance near 
Taunton in December, 1868. 
7 2 
