COMMON CROSSBILL. 17 



apples where rype, and went away when the apples were cleane 

 fallen. They were very good meate." 



From a note in the last edition of Bewick's History of 

 British Birds, it would appear that Crossbills were numerous 

 and visited other parts of England also, besides the county of 

 Kent, in the year 1593. 



J. Childrey in his Britannia Bacouica, or The Natural 

 Rarieties of England, Scotland, and Wales, published about 

 six years before Merrett's Pinax rerum naturalium Brilan- 

 nicaruni^ says, page 18, — " In Queen Elizabeth's time a 

 flock of Birds came into Cornwall about harvest, a little 

 bigger then a sparrow, which had bils thwarted crosswise at 

 the end, and with these they would cut an apple in two at 

 one snap, eating onely the kernels ; and they made a great 

 spoil among the apples." 



In June and July 1791, a birdcatcher at Bath caught one 

 hundred pair, which were generally sold for five shillings each. 

 In the winter of 1806, a flock inhabited for a time a clump 

 of firs in a deep-sheltered valley at Penllergare in Glamor- 

 ganshu-e, as I learn, by a communication from L. W. 

 Dillwyn, Esq. who has favoured me with many ornithological 

 notes. In 1821, Crossbills were numerous, and flocks were 

 seen in various parts of the country, particularly in Oxford- 

 shire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. In 1828 they 

 appeared in Westmorland, in the winter of 1829 they were 

 numerous in Yorkshire, and have been, I might almost say, 

 plentiful in various parts of England from the winter of 1835 

 to the present time (January 1839), probably induced to re- 

 main longer in this country now than formerly by the greater 

 abundance of fir plantations, to which they particularly resort 

 to avail themselves of the seeds of the numerous cones, which 

 are their principal food during winter. In the months of July 

 and August their visits, as already noticed, are made to those 

 orchard countries where apples abound, the kernels or pips of 



VOL. II. c 



