NOTES AND QUERIES. 349 



Eigg and Skye. A flock of at least sixty birds reached Eigg on July 3rd, 

 and on the 27th of the month a smaller flock was observed in the islaud of 

 Skye, as I learn from Mr. G. S. Dumville Lees, who is always most helpful 

 in assisting to work out the Ornithology of that faunal area. Since the 

 year 1868, when as a small boy I used to exercise a catapult upon the 

 flocks of Crossbills then frequenting the pine-woods of Bournemouth, I have 

 enjoyed a good many opportunities of studying the ways of this species, 

 but never until this summer in Eigg had I the pleasure of seeing Crossbills 

 feeding on Aphides. Some interesting notes on caged Crossbills will be 

 found in Mr. C. M. Adamson's work, ' More Scraps about Birds,' especially 

 as regards their feeding on green peas. I have had a great many caged 

 Crossbills myself during the last sixteen years, and I am surprised to find 

 that Mr. Adamson's birds " did not bathe." Mine were always very partial 

 to a "cold tub." I may remark that Crossbills have been unusually 

 numerous in the north-west of England since December, 1887. Their 

 presence is reported to me from Grange, Millom, and Appleby, and they 

 have certainly bred this summer near Penrith, though neither Mr. Tandy 

 nor I succeeded in obtaining a nest. — H. A. Macpherson (Carlisle). 



Crossbills in Co. Westmeath. — On August 1st a flock of twenty-four 

 Crossbills might have been seen, close to our house, busily engaged in 

 opening spruce fir cones, which are unusually abundant this year : one was 

 shot, and proved to be a small and immature specimen of this season, just 

 changing from its nesting plumage into the bright red tint which distin- 

 guishes the adult male Crossbill, and leads us to believe that the birds were 

 reared in, or near, our plantation. — Frances J. Battersby (Cromlyu, 

 Rathoweu, Co. "Westmeath). 



Migration of the Crossbill.— Several Crossbills occurred at the Spurn 

 on the 13th and 14th of July, on the sand-hills between the Lighthouses 

 and Kilnsea Beacon : one also was taken on board the Bull Lightvessel, 

 off the mouth of the Humber, and kept for a week, when it escaped and 

 flew away. Since the 16th of June great numbers have visited Heligoland 

 in flights of from ten, twenty to fifty. Mr. Gatke informs me that the 

 hawthorns in his garden were crowded with them, and that on some days 

 there must have been hundreds dispersed amongst the foliage. All were 

 adults ; not a single striped young one amongst them.— John Cordeaux 

 (Great Cotes, Ulceby). 



[We have heard of a good many Crossbills this summer in different 

 parts of the country. Iu July a flock of these birds was observed in Skye, 

 as reported in ' The Field ' of August 4th and 11th,— a noteworthy fact, 

 as we believe the Crossbill had not been previously observed there. — Ed.] 



Cuckoo in the City.— On the afternoon of August 16th a bird which 

 we at first took for a Kestrel, but which proved to be a young Cuckoo, was 



