208 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
these years that mine were shot. The year 1866 ap- 
pears to have been rather a great year; for although 
none, I believe, found their way to Somersetshire, 
their appearance in considerable numbers in various 
parts of England was noted in the ‘ Zoologist,’ in 
Norfolk, Sussex, at Henley-upon-Thames, in the 
Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. The earliest 
note of their appearance was of one seen by myself 
in the Island of Sark, near Guernsey, on the 25th of 
June:* on my return to Guernsey, a few days after- 
wards, three dead birds (two in red and one in green 
plumage) and one living were brought to me by a 
bird-catcher, who did not know what they were, but. 
said that people were killing them in their gardens 
in great numbers: the live bird soon got very tame, 
and is now alive and flourishing in my aviary. t 
From the general appearance of this bird in Eng- 
land it does not seem to be by any means a winter 
visitor, although its habitat is for the most part in 
latitudes to the north of this, but its visits are pro- 
bably regulated by the supply of food, which consists 
principally of berries and seeds, especially the seeds 
of the different sorts of fir-trees, for which it 
diligently searches the cones, sometimes holding 
them in its foot like a parrot, which bird it 
resembles in many of its actions. The berries of 
* The ‘ Zoologist’ for 1866 (Second Series, p. 449). 
+ Since then killed by a hawk. 
