88 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
approached, and many fall easy victims to the 
gardener’s gun. 
The nest is usually well concealed in a thick hedge 
or evergreen bush in some secluded situation ; but Mr. 
W. H. Peterkin has eggs in his collection which he 
took from a nest in a thin whitethorn hedge by the 
side of the highroad at Alderley Edge. 
CROSSBILL. 
LoxIA CURVIROSTRA, Linnzeus. 
At irregular intervals flocks of Crossbills have oc- 
curred in the winter months in the Cheshire woodlands. 
About the year 1834 or 1835, a flock visited the woods 
at Twemlow, near Holmes Chapel. Several of the birds, 
with characteristic tameness, allowed themselves to be 
captured while feeding on the seeds of conifers, by 
means of a horsehair noose fastened to the end of a 
fishing-rod Although the Crossbill is not included in 
Brockholes’ list, it has occurred on at least one occasion 
in Wirral; Captain Congreve having a specimen in his 
collection which was shot in the fir-woods at Burton in 
January 1839.” 
The numerous larches in and about the forest at 
Delamere offer attractions to these rare visitors, and 
they have been more frequently observed in this dis- 
trict than elsewhere. On January 22nd, 1889, Mr. W. 
J. Beaumont saw a flock of about twenty birds in a 
larch plantation at Vale Royal;* and in the Grosvenor 
Museum, Chester, there are several examples shot by 
Mr. A. Cookson at Oakmere in the winters of 1889 
and 1891. 
1 T. W. Barlow, ms. 
2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 300. 3 Naturalist, 1889, p. 102. 
