176 THE COMMOX CHOSSBILL. 



" In captivity they were quickly reconciled, and soon became 

 very familiar. As at first I was not aware what food would suit 

 them, I fixed branches of the larch against the sides of the room 

 in which I had confined them, and threw a quantity of the cones 

 on the floor. I found that they not only closely searched the 

 cones on the branches, but in a few days not one was left in the 

 room that had not been pried into. I gave them canary and hemp 

 seed ; but, thinking the cones were both amusement and employ- 

 ment, I continued to furnish them with a plentiful supply. I had 

 about four dozen of them ; and frequently, whilst I have been in 

 the room, they would fly down, seize a cone with their beak, carry 

 it to a perch, quickly transfer it to their claws, and in a very short 

 time empty it of its seeds, as I have very many times witnessed, 

 to my surprise and amusement. As tne spring advanced, the 

 male birds in the plantations were frequently singing on the tops 

 of the firs, in low but very agreeable notes, yet they continued in 

 flocks, and were seen in some parts of the country until the be- 

 ginning of June. I had hopes of their breeding in confinement, 

 and I accordingly kept them in different rooms, fixing the tops 

 of young fir trees on the floor, and against the walls, and supply- 

 ing them with as great a variety of food as possible ; but all to 

 no purpose, as neither those I had confined in this manner, nor 

 those in cages, ever showed any inclination to breed." 



Several records of the appearance of flocks of these rare birds 

 in England at different dates have been preserved. One of these, 

 of which a copy was sent by a clergyman residing near Maidstone 

 to Mr. YAEEELL, and by him published, states thus : " The 

 yeere 1593 was a great 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 uppen the kernells ouely 

 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 cock a very glorious bird, in a manner al redde or 

 yellowe on the brest, backe, and head. * * * * 

 They came when the apples were rype, and went away when the 

 apples were cleane fallen. They were good meate." 



According to a note in the last edition of BEWICK, it would 

 appear that Crossbills did not confine their visit to the county of 

 Kent in this year 1593 : they are there mentioned as also nu- 

 merous elsewhere. 



In a rare work, entitled Britannia Saconica, or the Natural 

 Rarities of England, Scotland, and Wales, it is stated that 

 " in Queen Elizabeth's time a flock of birds came into Cornwall 

 about harvest, a little bigger than a Sparrow, which had bils 



