400 BRITISH BIRDS. 



CROSSBILLS NESTING IN ENGLAND. 

 In Hampshire. 



A flock of fifty to sixty Crossbills arrived on July 5th, 

 1909, in my neighbourhood, midway between Romsey 

 and Southampton. This flock left and flew off due 

 north, but on July 8th small parties of about eight birds 

 each commenced arriving, and many of these have remained 

 in the neighbourhood during the winter. I left England 

 on January 19th, 1910, and gave instructions that a 

 search was to be made for nests. On my return on 

 April 3rd the Crossbills were in the garden, but I was 

 told that no nest had been found, and as the birds I saw 

 seemed to be in a small flock of five I thought probably they 

 had not nested. The birds have been daily in the garden, 

 and on April 9th I saw a female feeding a very young bird, 

 barely able to fly. I was attracted to them by the curious 

 note of the young bird, which was apparently only just out 

 of the nest. It was very much streaked underneath, and 

 the mandibles were apparently not crossed. It sat fluffed 

 up and shivering its wings while the hen fed it. The latter 

 operation lasted three or four minutes, the hen putting her 

 beak into the little one's and feeding it from her crop. The 

 fir-woods in this neighbourhood are very extensive, and 

 many pairs of Crossbills may have bred without being 

 discovered. Out of the five or six old birds which visit the 

 garden daily I have only seen one cock. 



Goland v. Clarke. 



Flocks of Crossbills frequented the broad belts of Scotch fir 

 all round Rookesbury Park, Wickham, during January and 

 February, 1910, and were still there in March, during which 

 month two nests were found. One of these was quite in- 

 accessible on a thin branch of a Scotch fir overhanging a road 

 and about fifty feet from the ground. The other, which was 

 built some two feet from the crown of a Scotch fir some fifty 

 feet high, was empty when climbed to on April 13th, but it 

 had the appearance of young having been reared in it. 



The Crossbills in this neighbourhood are being shot by the 

 fruit-farmers, who accuse them of attacking the buds of 

 fruit-trees. 



Dayrell Davies. 



Since February 13th, 1910, I have been watching Crossbills 

 from time to time in a corner of a " thinned- out " plan- 

 tation adjoining two roads near Burley (New Forest). The 



