COMMON CROSSBILL. 199 



as two hundred being seen in a flock, and it is also reported 

 to have nested near the former place. In the Cleveland 

 division it is very irregular in its visits ; several were procured 

 near Swainby and Osmotherly in 1869, and in 1894 large 

 parties were in the woods at Swainby, Ayton, and Easby 

 in November and December ; the Swainby keeper reported 

 their appearance on the 26th of March following, though 

 a diligent search through the woods, made by Mr. Emerson 

 and myself, in hope of finding a nest, was fruitless ; in Teesdale 

 and the extreme north-west it occurs, as a rare visitant only, 

 in winter. 



In the East Riding it breeds in some seasons near 

 Scampston, where small flocks were observed in 1864 and 1888 ; 

 the nest is also reported from Market Weighton, and in the 

 summer of 1829 a pair bred in a large tree in Boynton Woods 

 (see Allis). A flock of about twenty was seen in Mr. F. Boyes's 

 garden, at Beverley, feeding in a Scotch fir tree, on 26th June 

 1903 ; large flocks have appeared on the estate of Sir Tatton 

 Sykes at Sledmere, and it has probably bred in the larch 

 and fir plantations there. It has also occurred irregularly 

 at Waplington, Bridlington, Beverley, Flamborough, Spurn, 

 and in various places near Hull, sometimes quite close to 

 the town. 



There were general visitations of these birds in 1855, 

 1863, 1867-68, and, in 1888, as the pages of the natural 

 history journals testify, they were common in many counties, 

 as again in 1894, 1898, and 1903. Although the Crossbill 

 does not come with the regularity of some of our over-sea 

 migrants, yet it is frequently noticed on passage ; in the 

 autumn of 1875, when the Snow Buntings arrived at Flam- 

 borough, they were accompanied by Crossbills, a gale from 

 the north-east blowing at the time and very cold ; some were 

 also reported there in August 1889 ; at Spurn in 1888 there 

 was an arrival in summer, and on July the I4th and I5th 

 a pair that were examined were found to have been feeding 

 on the nymph of the " Cuckoo-spit " ; one was also caught 

 alive on the Bull Lightship. In August 1894, they were 

 observed both at Spurn and Flamborough ; and in 



