THE SCOTTISH CROSSBILL. 87 



Food. — Normally seeds of cones of Scots fir and other conifers, 

 but also apple-pips, rowan berries, buds, aphides, caterpillars, etc. 



Distribution. — England and Wales. — Late summer - immigrant 

 arriving mid - Jime to August. Regular in some districts, but 

 irregular in most, and especially so in north-west and south-west 

 England and in Wales. Periodically (every tliree to ten years) 

 arrives in great numbers and becomes much more generally distri- 

 buted and frequently stays over following spring and into summer. 

 Most nesting-records in springs immediately following "irruptions." 

 Has nested in following counties ; dates within square brackets 

 refer to probable but not positive records : — ^Devon, 1839, 1894. 

 Somerset, 1910. Hants., 1839, 1858, 1877, 1892, 1910, 1912-14. 

 Berks., 1882, 1889 [1898], 1899, 1910. Sussex, 1791, 1840, 1910. 

 Surrey [1899], 1910. Kent [1833], [1839], [1894], 1910, 1911. 

 Herts., 1907. Bucks., 1910. Gloucester, 1839, 1910. Oxon. 

 [1839]. Leicester, 1839. Staffs., 1910. Hereford [1895]. Salop, 

 1880, [1895], [1896], 1898, 1913. Northants., 1892, 1904. Beds. 

 [1899], 1910, 1913. Essex, 1910. Suffolk, 1815, 1822, 1885, 

 1889, 1910-14. Norfolk, 1829, 1887, 1889, 1890, 1910-13. Lines. 

 [1910]. Yorks., 1829, 1840, [1855], 1872, 1876, 1902. Durham, 



1838, 1856. Cumberland, 1839, 1856, [1865]. Northumberland 

 [1821], 1838, 1869, 1889. Cheviot Hills, 1898. Carnarvon, 1890 

 or 1891. Montgomery, 1880. Merioneth [1897]. Scotland.— 

 Late summer-immigrant as in England, but apparently not so 

 regular ; subject to similar irruptions, appearing in numbers even 

 in far northern and western isles. Breeds sporadically and rarely 

 in south Scotland, and possibly also in territory of Loxia c. scotica, 

 but proof so far wanting. Has nested Ayr, 1864, [1884]. Dumfries 

 [1838-9], 1888. Kincardine, 1903. Linlithgow, 1839. Stirling, 



1839. Ireland. — ^Now resident but not mdigenous. Apparently 

 only migrates to Ireland in years of " irruptions." Following 

 irruption of 1838 bred Tipperary and has since ; in 1867 Kildare ; 

 since 1868 has settled Fermanagh ; since 1881 King's ; between 

 1883 and 1895 Westmeath. Following irruption of 1887-8, 

 increased and bred more ^\idely, and is now estabhshed (with 

 fluctuations) in plantations of conifers in each province. 

 Distribution. — Abroad. — Europe generally and north Asia, but 

 represented by closely-allied forms in Spain, the Balearic Isles, 

 north-west Africa, Cyprus, Caucasus, Crimea, central Asia and 

 Himalayas to Japan and North America. More or less nomadic, 

 in certain years migratory and spreading in great numbers west- 

 wards and southwards. 



34. Loxia curvirostra scotica Hart. — THE SCOTTISH 



CROSSBILL. 



Loxia cukvirostba scotica Hartert, Vog. pal. Fauna, i, p. 120 (1904 



—Scotland), id., Brit. B., i, p. 211. 



Loxia curvirostra Linnseus.Yarrell.ii, p. 187 (part); Saunders, p. 201 (part). 



