NOTES. 403 



wool — the best materials at hand. I did not meddle with 

 it, but on coming again a week later I found it had not been 

 touched, and the birds had disappeared. 



There have been flocks of Crossbills here since August, < 

 1909. There are considerably fewer now than there were in 

 January ; but flocks of about twenty individuals are still to 

 be seen, and many seem to have paired, but I cannot find 

 another nest or distinguish any young birds. 



f. a. monckton. 

 In Suffolk. 



On March 27th, 1910, I visited a locality in Suffolk from 

 which I had had reports of large numbers of Crossbills, and 

 judging from the quantity of cones under the trees in every 

 belt of firs visited, they must have been there in hundreds. 

 There were still many birds about at the time of my visit, 

 mostly in pairs or single. I found three nests from which 

 the young had flown in the same belt of Scotch pines. A 

 fourth nest, only about fifteen feet up a Scotch pine, contained 

 four young just hatched out. The female left the nest as I 

 climbed the tree, but was not in the least demonstrative, and 

 the male did not put in an appearance. I carefully examined 

 the mouths of the young ; the coloration was very beautiful 

 and was of a pale claret, tinged with purple, or more of a 

 petunia-purple, some parts were fringed or margined with 

 purplish-white, the back of the tongue was orange-purple. 

 On the following day I found another nest containing four 

 young ; this was situated on a horizontal branch of a Scotch 

 pine, near the end and about forty feet up, a typical position. 

 During the day three more nests were located, and from their 

 condition must have contained young, a month or six weeks 

 previously. For the foundations of the nests a decided prefer- 

 ence was shown for twigs of Scotch pine, in only one of the 

 above nests larch was used ; sheep's wool, green moss, and 

 rye-grass were freely used in the construction of the nests, 

 while the lining consisted of very fine rootlets, sheep's wool, 

 and feathers (no hair) ; measurements 5 inches diameter, 

 2 to 2 \ inches deep, cup \\ to If inch deep. All these nests 

 were quite close to a frequented road. In the same locality 

 a nest and four eggs were taken on April 3rd. 



Percy F. Bun yard. 



Probable Nesting in Suffolk. 

 Small flocks of Crossbills were noticed from September 

 21st, 1909, to March 30th, 1910, at Brandon. They con- 

 tinually come to a roof-gutter to drink. Towards the end 



