NOTES. 305 



Ore, and at Westfield, for about three weeks (N. F. 

 Ticehurst). A party, varying from six or eight to eighteen 

 or twenty, from November 4th to December 6th, 1909, 

 atUckfield; three on January 13th, 1910, and four on 

 January 14th at same place (R. 31 orris). One on 

 December 5th, 1909, and two about a fortnight before 

 at Eastbourne (E. C. Arnold). 



Wiltshire. — Small flock on December 17th, 1909, at Little- 

 cote, and another small flock three or four miles away, 

 on December 18th (Heathy Noble). 



Scotland. — With reference to the record from Inverness 

 (p. 261), Mr. R. H. W. Leach informs us that Crossbills 

 are present with them nearly all the year round, and breed. 

 Mr. Eagle Clarke gives the following information {Ann. 

 S.N.H., 1910, p. 54) additional to that which has 

 already been recorded {supra, p. 190) : At Fair Isle the 

 Crossbills were in greatest abundance on July 10th, when 

 they were in large flocks. These flocks, however, appear 

 to have at once broken up, for after this date, though 

 plentiful, the visitors were in scattered parties, and were 

 abundant down to August 26th. Later they became 

 gradually scarcer ; in September only two or three were 

 seen, and the last seen on the island was an immature 

 male on October 2nd. During their sojourn they 

 frequented all parts of the island : the faces of the great 

 cliffs, the cultivated land, the grassy slopes, and the 

 high bleak, heathery ground. On the latter they fed on 

 the unripe fruit of the crowberry ; elsewhere on seeds 

 of grasses and other plants, and on the heads of 

 thistles. Very many of these visitors, however, perished, 

 for numerous dead or dying birds were found in the plots 

 of potatoes. At the Flannan Islands the last of the 

 invaders was observed on September 22nd. Mr. 

 Francis G. Gunnis has informed Mr. Clarke that they 

 were very plentiful at Gordonbush, in east Sutherland ; 

 and adds that many were caught in the nets protect- 

 ing strawberries. 



Mr. Clarke remarks that the paucity of records from 

 the mainland of Scotland is to be explained by the fact 

 that the birds failed to attract notice in the Highland 

 forests, where there are great numbers of native Crossbills 

 (i.e., L. c. scotica). 



Isle of Man.— On August 14th, 1909, Mr. M. McWhannell 

 saw eight Crossbills feeding on larch-cones at Glenduff, 

 z 



