OF NATURE. 447 



haunt his garden for more more than a fortnight. I began to 

 accuse this bird of making sad havock among the buds of the 

 cherries, gooseberries, and wall-fruit of the neighbouring 

 orchards. Upon opening its crop or craw, no buds were to be 

 seen ; but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr. B. 

 observed that this bird frequented the spot where plum-trees 

 grow ; and that he had seen it with somewhat hard in its 

 mouth, which it broke with difficulty ; these were the stones 

 of damsons. The latin ornithologists call this bird cocco- 

 tliraustes, i. e. berry-breaker, because with its large horny 

 beak it cracks and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the 

 sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen 

 in England, and only in winter *. WHITE. 



I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest 

 cold of the hardest winters ; at which season of the year I 

 have had in my possession two or three that were killed in 

 this neighbourhood in different years. MARKWICK. 



* [It is a mistake to suppose that the Grossbeak, or Hawfinch, is only 

 seen in the depth of winter. On the 17th of August, 1859, I picked up 

 on my lawn the wing and some feathers of one which doubtless had been 

 killed by a cat. On the 8th of April, 1867, I saw a pair of them fly 

 across the lawn into an Abies Doitylasii. Nor is the occurrence of this 

 bird in Selborne and the neighbourhood a very rare circumstance. A 

 neighbour has two of them stuffed, both of which were killed in my 

 grounds, and a fine female was found dead on the lawn behind my house 

 in January 1871, probably killed by the intense cold, the thermometer 

 having 1 fallen on three days in that month respectively to 3, 8, and 10 

 Falir. The late Capt. Chawner assured me that it is seen not unfre- 

 quently at Newton, and that it has bred there. I have also seen it at 

 Chawton. 



The late Mr. Doubleday, in a paper in the first volume of the * Maga- 

 zine of Zoology and Botany ' (1837), suggests that the supposed great 

 rarity of this species was due to its extreme shyness, " exceeding that of 

 almost any other land bird." He, however, watched them for years in 

 Epping Forest, where they abound, and has given a very full and inte- 

 resting account of their nidification and general habits. He states that 

 their favourite food is the seed of the hornbeam, and it is not improbable 

 that they are attracted to my premises by a remarkably fine tree of this 

 species, which is yearly loaded with seed. T. B.] 



