COMMON CROSSBILL. PARROT-CROSSBILL. 239 



favourite locality. In this instance, they exhibited a 

 remarkable indifference to the sound of a gun, merely 

 flying off to the next tree after each report, and 

 apparently unmindful of the loss of their comrades 

 till the whole flock was destroyed. They are ex- 

 tremely amusing in confinement, from their quaint 

 parrot-like actions, and are very tame and sociable. I 

 once saw an unfortunate specimen, which had literally 

 been starved to death through a malformation of the 

 beak, the upper mandible, instead of merely crossing 

 the lower, growing straight downwards to more than 

 half its natural length. 



LOXIA PITYOPSITTACUS, Bechstein. 

 PAEEOT-CEOSSBILL. 



This rare species, by no means easily distinguished 

 from large varieties of the common crossbill, has not 

 hitherto been included amongst the birds of Norfolk, 

 but since the publication of Messrs. Gurney and Fisher's 

 " List," in 1846, one authentic example, at least, has 

 occurred in this county, and entitles it to a place in the 

 present work. This specimen, identified by Mr. Alfred 

 Newton, was described by him in the "Zoologist" for 

 1851 (p. 3145), as killed near Biddlesworth Hall, where 

 it is still preserved in Mr. ThornhnTs collection; and 

 the same gentleman also mentions a " fine red male," 

 in his own possession, which was shot at Saxham, in 

 Suffolk, in November, 1850, and was purchased by him in 

 the following March from Mr. Head, a bird-preserver, at 

 Bury St. Edmund's. From that time I know of no 

 farther record of the appearance of this bird in either of 

 the above counties until the following note was inserted 

 in the "Zoologist" for 1863 (p. 8845), by Mr. Thomas 



