The Natural History of Selborne 439 



gooseberries, and wall-fruit of all 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. ob- 

 served 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- 

 thraustes 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. 



