TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 213 



283) to its determination. Mr. Rodd in 1843 mentioned 

 (Zool. p. 142) that one had been killed a few years before 

 at Larrigan in Cornwall, and the specimen, which is still 

 in his collection, he has since referred to the present form. 

 In the autumn of 1845 a considerable number appeared 

 in Cumberland, and a hen now in Mr. Hancock's collection 

 was shot out of a flock of about fifteen near Brampton in 

 that county, while at least nine more were obtained in the 

 neighbourhood either at the same time or in the following 

 year (Zool. pp. 1551, 1638). Of these last, two were lent 

 for the use of this work by Capt. Johnson of Walton House. 

 In May 1846, two or three were killed from a flock at Drink- 

 stone, near Bury St. Edmund's in Suffolk* (Zool. pp. 1498, 

 2419), one of which is in Mr. Gurney's possession and a 

 second, received at the time by Heysham, passed from him 

 with one of the Cumberland specimens to Doubleday and 

 thence to Mr. Stevenson's possession (Zool. s.s. p. 3778, 

 note). Somewhere about the same time, it is believed, 

 Doubleday shot a young bird in his own garden at Epping. 

 Mr. Blake Knox has more recently recorded (Zool. s.s. p. 

 1376) a specimen obtained by him in Ireland in 1868. 

 All these examples, so far as the Editor can judge, may- 

 be safely assigned to L. bifasciata. 



This bird has at times occurred in considerable num- 

 bers in various parts of Europe whither it has strayed from 

 its home in the northern and eastern parts of the Russian 

 dominions. In 1792, one is said to have been taken at 

 Stockholm, and this is perhaps the first known instance 

 of its appearance in Europe ; but, in 1815, Meisner and 

 Schinz noticed in the Museum at Bern a specimen, said 

 to have been taken in Switzerland, which was probably of 

 this species. In 1824 the younger Naumann figured, as a 

 variety of Loxia curvirostra, an immature example of the 

 present bird (obtained presumably in Germany) being one 

 of the only two he said he had ever seen. In the summer 



* From the fact of two of the specimens having been sent to a birdstuffer at 

 Thetford, the neighbourhood of that town was inferred to have been the locality 

 where they were obtained. The Editor well remembers them in his hands. 



