302 BRITISH BIRDS. 



cold or stormy very little will be seen of the bird. This may 

 partly account for Mr. Hunter's want of success in finding the 

 early nests. Mr. Ussher's observations agree closely with 

 my own. He mentions a case of a young brood which had 

 quitted the nest, being seen on April 29th. 



Allan Ellison. 



CROSSBILLS NESTING IN NORFOLK. 



On January 12th, 1910, a workman walking home along 

 the railway line near Thetford, Norfolk, saw a Crossbill 

 feeding young. He threw a stone at them, killing the old 

 bird and one of the nestlings ; two other nestlings were taken 

 alive, and he is now trying to rear them ; they were shown 

 to me last night in his cottage. The nest was in a Scotch 

 fir close to the line, and not more than 20 feet from the 

 ground. On January 18th I saw a flock of twelve within a 

 mile of the same spot, and to-day (January 14th) a pair some 

 two miles distant. I am sending the dead Crossbill. 



Heatley Noble. 



Since writing, the two young ones have died, and I now 

 enclose them too. H. N. 



[The young birds were almost fully fledged, but traces of 

 down still adhered to the crown and rump-feathers, and only the 

 faintest traces of the crossing of the beak were to be noticed. 

 The breeding-season of this species is so extraordinarily 

 variable that it is scarcely surprising to find that a few birds 

 breed even in mid-December in a country where the winter 

 is open and mild as compared with Scandinavia. Thus in 

 Styria, Hanf found two nests with eggs on January 30th. 

 Brehm states that it has been recorded as having eggs or 

 young in every month of the year, even in December, and 

 that he has seen birds in full moult feeding young, laying and 

 pairing ! In Denmark eggs have been found from January 

 to May : Dr. Rey says the breeding-season extends from 

 December to June ; while in Bavaria young have been found 

 in the nest in September. Mr. Noble tells us that a nest 

 with four eggs, far advanced in incubation, was found on 

 January 29th, 1907, in west Ross-shire. The usual breeding- 

 time in the British Isles is, however, from the end of February 

 to the beginning of April. — Eds.] 



