188 FRINGILLIDJE. 



second generally the longest. Tail short, forked. Tarsus short and stout, scutellate 

 in front. Toes short and stout. Claws moderately curved, short and stout. 



THE history of the Common Crossbill is still involved in 

 some obscurity, for though it is now ascertained to breed 

 yearly in some parts of Scotland and in England frequently 

 the origin, whether native or foreign, of most of the 

 examples so often yet so irregularly observed in the southern 

 kingdom is questionable, and, as will by and bye appear, 

 there is a great divergence of opinion as to the sequence of 

 the plumages it assumes. With us it is most commonly seen 

 in flocks between the latter part of June and the beginning 

 of February the summer-flocks being family-parties com- 

 posed of the parents and the young which keep together 

 until, having exhausted the supply of food in any particular 

 place, they ordinarily leave it for another district. Several 

 instances however are known, and one is especially recorded 

 by Hoy (Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. pp. 54, 55 and ser. 2, i. p. 117), 

 in which the same birds have been closely watched and found 

 to remain until May, while Mr. Joseph Clarke states (torn, 

 prox. cit. p. 166) that the species was seen for more than 

 twelve months in plantations near Saffron -Walden in a 

 garden of which town the same naturalist says that a pair 

 built a nest. White of Selborne, in 1773, noticed its annual 

 appearance about midsummer at Eingmer in Sussex. Lewin, 

 in July 1791, shewed Latham a pair of old birds and a 

 young one shot in his garden, while others of the brood still 

 frequented the spot, and in August of the same year a hen- 

 bird, with a bare breast as if she had been sitting, was shot 

 at Erith, according to the naturalist last named, who also, in 

 a contribution to the edition of Pennant's ' British Zoology' 

 published in 1812, stated that a pair built a nest near Dart- 

 ford in Kent, but no eggs were laid therein, for the birds for- 

 sook it owing to the too great curiosity of visitors. Bullock 

 is said to have received the young from near Bath, early in 

 July. According to Sheppard and Whitear a pair completed 

 their nest, in March 1815, at Offton in Suffolk, but were 

 unfortunately killed by a Hawk. Another pair, however, 

 say they, built in a fir at Livermere in the same county, and 



