208 FRINGILLID^. 



Crossbill — for so it has come to be called in English — have 

 been recorded as occurring in England, occasionally in Scot- 

 land, and once also in Wales. Mr. Harting (Handb. Br. B. 

 pp. 114, 115) has carefully compiled a list of these notices, 

 but the critical ornithologist will with justice forbear from 

 trusting all of them. As already stated the common Cross- 

 bill varies somewhat in size, and it may be fairly presumed 

 —there being little but size to distinguish the two forms — 

 that a fine specimen of the ordinary bird has been occasion- 

 ally set down by a sanguine collector, without any desire of 

 deception on his part, for the rarer kind. Enough to say 

 now that this last has been indubitably taken several times 

 in Britain, for scarcely any useful end would be attained 

 by investigating, even if that were possible, each reputed 

 instance. The Editor has more than once had brought 

 under his notice birds, supposed to be Parrot-Crossbills 

 which were certainly not such, but he has seen sufficient 

 examples, about which no reasonable doubt could be enter- 

 tained, to justify the retention of the bird in the present 

 work. Among these are two in the Museum of the Univer- 

 sity of Cambridge — ^one, apparently a hen, certified by a 

 label in Mr. Jenyns's handwriting as having been killed at 

 Blythburg in Suffolk in 1818, and the second, in the cock's 

 red plumage, which was obtained of Mr. Head, formerly a 

 bird-stuffer at Bury St. Edmunds, and said by him to have 

 been killed at Saxham in the same county, in November 

 1850. In the possession of Mr. Thornhill of Riddlesworth 

 in Norfolk, is also another red male, shot at or near that 

 place a few years before (Zool. p. 3145). Other specimens 

 are doubtless just as trustworthy though the Editor cannot 

 speak of them from personal knowledge. Of these may be 

 mentioned one said by Blyth, in his edition of White's 

 * Selborne ' (p. 160, note), to have been shot in the New 

 Forest in the autumn of 1835 or 1836. Several examples, 

 as stated in the former edition of this work, were brought to 

 the London market in March 1838, and were eagerly bought 

 by those who were aware of their rarity. Two of these I 

 examined. Mr. Bartlett was the purchaser of a third, and 



