208 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



these years that mine were shot. The year 1866 ap- 

 pears to have been rather a great year; for although 

 none, I believe, found their way to Somersetshire, 

 their appearance in considerable numbers in various 

 parts of England was noted in the ' Zoologist,' in 

 Norfolk, Sussex, at Henley-upon- Thames, in the 

 Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. The earliest 

 note of their appearance was of one seen by myself 

 in the Island of Sark, near Guernsey, on the 25th of 

 June : * on my return to Guernsey, a few daj^s after- 

 wards, three dead birds (two in red and one in green 

 plumage) and one living were brought to me by a 

 bird-catcher, who did not know what they were, but 

 said that people were killing them in their gardens 

 in great numbers : the live bird soon got very tame, 

 and is now alive and flourishing in my aviary, f 



From the general appearance of this bird in Eng- 

 land it does not seem to be by any means a winter 

 visitor, although its habitat is for the most part in 

 latitudes to the north of this, but its visits are pro- 

 bably regulated by the supply of food, which consists 

 principally of berries and seeds, especially the seeds 

 of the different sorts of fir-trees, for which it 

 diligently searches the cones, sometimes holding 

 them in its foot like a parrot, which bird it 

 resembles in many of its actions. The berries of 



* The ' Zoologist' for 1866 (Second Series, p. 449). 

 f Since then killed by a hawk. 



