192 FRINGILLID/E. 



works, it appears to have occurred in almost every English 

 county. Depending mainly for food on the seeds of conifers 

 and the pips of apples*, its movements are irregular beyond 

 those of most birds, and it would seem to rove in almost any 

 direction and at almost any season in quest of its staple 

 sustenance. Want of space here forbids any statement of 

 more than its greater visitations, as these have been set 

 down. Edwards, writing in 1757, states that great flights 

 had lately occurred near London. In June and July 1791, 

 says Montagu, a bird-catcher at Bath took an hundred pairs 

 of which the greater part were males and generally sold at 

 five shillings each. In 1806, as appears from Mr. Dillwyn's 

 statement, a flock inhabited a clump of firs in a sheltered 

 Glamorganshire valley. In 1821, as recorded by many authors, 

 Crossbills were numerous and flocks were seen in various 

 parts of the country particularly in the counties of Oxford, 

 Worcester, Warwick and Northumberland. In 1828 they 

 appeared in Westmoreland and the following year were 

 numerous in Yorkshire. In the summer of 1835, according 

 to Blyth, they were again plentiful, and so they continued 

 in several districts from that time to 1839 among other 

 instances flocks having been seen in Dorset in 1836, about 

 Carlisle, says Heysham, in June 1837, and twenty having 

 been killed by one person in Hampshire during the first 

 week of August 1838. Coming to later years, they were 

 very generally seen throughout the kingdom from 1846 to 

 1848, in the winter of 1853-54, again in 1855, in 1861, in 

 1866 and in 1868. But as yet nothing, otherwise than con- 

 jecturally, has been made out that will correlate their 

 abundance or scarcity with other natural phenomena. This 

 must be the work of future naturalists and physicists. 



In Scotland, as in England, the Crossbill is said to have 

 been taken in every county, though not in any of the Outer 



* Hence one of the old names for this bird is "Shell-apple." Of late it has 

 not been often observed feeding on apples, very possibly owing to the greatly 

 increased growth of firs, and especially larches, throughout the country. In the 

 days of its great depredations in orchards, there could have been few if any 

 conifers in England. In Germany it does not seem to have been ever generally 

 known as attacking fruit-trees. 



