390 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. [APPENDIX B.] 



In 1887, Mr. Norgate wrote me with regard to the 

 Norfolk and Suffolk border as follows: "Eleven cross- 

 bills have been slain in the past spring, and I saw three 

 others surviving. I have no doubt there were many nests, 

 but it is difficult to find even the birds, more difficult to 

 identify them even with a glass, and impossible to follow 

 them through the big Scotch fir plantations." In the 

 spring of 1888 Mr. Cole tells me ten of these birds 

 were seen in the Norwich Cemetery, five of which were 

 killed. In the spring of 1889 they are said to have bred 

 freely in a certain locality in this county, and very 

 recently they have again been seen in the Norwich 

 Cemetery, where they remained till the last week in 

 February, 1890. 



Mr. Norgate has kindly given me permission to quote 

 from his interesting notes on the breeding of this species, 

 and I shall confine myself to those which relate to this 

 county only, merely remarking that he found these birds 

 equally numerous in certain parts of the adjoining 

 county of Suffolk. 



In the year 1889 Mr. Norgate saw many crossbills 

 in the month of January, on Scotch firs. On the 5th 

 March, he says " a man offered me three crossbills' nests 

 of three, three, and three eggs, but his price was ex- 

 orbitant, and I did not even see them. In North 

 Norfolk, on March 23rd, two crossbills were obtained ; 

 they were feeding on fir seeds, but I did not see them. 

 On March 26th I took a nest of four crossbills' eggs from 

 a Scotch fir ; the hen bird objected to leave the nest 

 even after it was brought down from the tree, when 

 three or four other crossbills came and fluttered about 

 close to our heads, uttering their peculiar cry and show- 

 ing their hooked beaks. 



" On April 1st I brought home three more crossbills' 

 nests of four, five, and four eggs, from Scotch firs, and 

 had excellent views of many of these birds ; they are 

 very tame, allowing one to touch their nests ere they 

 leave them. The red cocks have a pleasing little song, 

 besides the usual call notes. 



"On April 13th I took from a very small Scotch fir 

 (little more than a bush in size) a nest of four sat-on 

 eggs ; after examining the greenish back, crossed man- 



