CROSSBILL. 191 



supplied to him in English by Sir Roger Twysden. The 

 collections of that antiquary subsequently passed into the 

 possession of the late Rev. L. B. Larking of Ryarsh, near 

 Maidstone, who favoured the Author with a copy of the 

 document * in the following terms : " That the yeere 1593 

 was a greate and exceeding yeere of apples ; and there were 

 greate plenty of strang birds, that shewed themselves at the 

 time the apples were full rype, who fedde uppon the kernells 

 onely of those apples, and haveinge a bill with one beake 

 wrythinge over the other, which would presently bore a 

 greate hole in the apple, and make way to the kernells ; 

 they were of the bignesse of a Bullfinch, the henne right 

 like the henne of the Bullfinch in coulour ; the cocke a very 

 glorious bird, in a manner al redde or yellowe on the brest, 

 backe, and head. The oldest man living never heard or 

 reade of any such like bird ; and the thinge most to bee 

 noted was, that it seemed they came out of some country 

 not inhabited ; for that they at the first would abide shoot- 

 ing at them, either with pellet, bowe, or other engine, and 

 not remove till they were stricken downe ; moreover, they 

 would abide the throweing at them, in so much as diverse 

 were stricken downe and killed with often throweing at them 

 with apples. They came when the apples were rype, and 

 went away when the apples were cleane fallen. They were 

 very good meate." 



It may have been this visitation that Childrey mentions in 

 his 'Britannia Baconica: or, The Natural Rarities of England, 

 Scotland, & Wales ' (London: 1661. p. 13), as follows 

 "In Q. Elizabeths time a flock of Birds came into Cornwall 

 about Harvest, a little bigger than a Sparrow, which had 

 bils thwarted crosswise at the end, and with these they 

 would cut an apple in two at one snap, eating onely the 

 Kernels ; and they made a great spoil among the apples." 



From the many accounts of this species given in different 



* The Editor greatly regrets that he has been unable to see this document so 

 as to ascertain its approximate date and possibly its author. Mr. J. W. Larking, 

 brother of the gentleman named above, has kindly but ineffectually searched for 

 it. Bewick in his later editions gave a retranslation of it into English from the 

 Latin version of Wats. 



VOL. II. C C 



