32 NATURAL HISTORY 



since that, now and then one is occasionally seen in the same 

 dead season *. 



A cross-bill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this 

 neighbourhood f. 



Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of 

 the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's 

 thumb (gobius fluviatilis capitatusi), the trout (trutta fluvia- 

 tilis ), the eel (anguilla\\), the lampern (lampcetra parva et 

 fluviatilis^), and the stickle-back (pisciculus aculeatus**). 



* [The hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, has repeatedly made its 

 appearance at Selborne, and at different seasons of the year. On the 27th 

 of August 1859 I picked up on my lawn the wings and some feathers of 

 one, which had probably been killed by a cat. I had once before seen one 

 in the same situation. In September 1867 a pair flew across the lawn, 

 and settled in a large Abies Douglassii, which, with other conifers, may 

 possibly be the attractive cause of their frequent visits to this place. A 

 very respectable inhabitant of Selborne has two of them stuffed, both of 

 which were killed many years ago in my premises ; and in January 1871 

 one was picked up dead under a yew tree, also on my lawn. I have seen 

 it at Chawton j and the late Oapt. Chawner, an excellent observer, as- 

 sured me that they have repeatedly bred at Newton Valence, in his 

 park. T. B.] 



t [I have every assurance that the Cross-bill has more than once been 

 seen in the neighbourhood of Selborne since the time mentioned by 

 White. I have heard of its occurrence at Newton Valence, but have 

 never had personal proof of the fact. The very interesting description by 

 Mr. Yarrell, of the mode in which this bird obtains its food and the 

 elaborate mechanism by which the movements of the anomalous beak 

 are performed, is too long to be quoted, even in intelligible abstract. 

 It will be found in extenso in the second volume of his ' British Birds,' 

 p. 27. That the Cross-bill has bred in this country is a well-ascer- 

 tained fact. T. B.] 



| [Coitus gobio, Linn. : Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, i. p. 56.] 



\_Salmo fario, Linn. : Yarrell, ii. p. 252. The trout exists in con- 

 siderable numbers in the stream that flows by the Priory meadows and 

 Oakhanger ; but they are of small size. T. B.] 



|| \Anguilla acutirostris, Yarrell, ii. p. 284.] 



51 \_Ammoccctes branchialis, Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, ii. p. 69. This fish is 

 rarely found ; I do not remember to have seen it more than once or 

 twice. It lives entirely in the mud ; and an intelligent person residing 

 near Oakhanger Pond, the most likely place for its occurrence, is not 

 acquainted with it. T. B.] 



** [Of the six species of stickleback described by Yarrell as British, the 



