70 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
rescued from its inevitable fate, and now lives happily in a cage; its wing 
has never properly mended, and the bird is consequently unable to fly. 
After the autumnal moult last year a white tail-feather appeared, and there 
is one white feather in the head. Varieties of the Sparrow may be seen 
almost daily. On April 14th, 1886, a sooty black one was observed; on 
April 16th, 1887, there was a Sparrow in the Zoological Gardens with 
nearly all the feathers on its back edged with white, giving it a curious 
streaked appearance. Chaffinches are fairly common in summer, but in 
winter are much scarcer; I remember one Christmas seeing from my 
dining-room window a hen Chaffinch searching for food on the deep snow 
lying in the street. A Bullfinch was seen on May 15th, 1884, near the 
Serpentine, and a Linnet close to the Bayswater Road, but it is possible 
that these may have been escaped birds. Greenfinches are scarce in 
London, but are occasionally obseryed in the Botanical Gardens, and on 
Jan. 4th, 1887, I noticed one on a small tree in Oxford Terrace. I have 
only once or twice come across the Pied Wagtail, and the same remark 
applies to the Goldcrest, Kingfisher, and Tree Creeper. I nearly caught a 
Tree Creeper about a year ago in Kensington Gardens by stalking it from the 
opposite side ofa trunk, on which it was busily engaged searching for insects. 
The Swallow, Martin, Sand Martin, and Swift are all to be seen at times in 
our parks; but itis a matter of regret that the Martins which we used to 
watch building their nests every sum mer under the eaves of a house near 
the Bayswater Road, have recently deserted the spot. The only other 
species which have come under my notice in London are the Stonechat, 
the Cuckoo, the Heron, and the Kittiwake, all of which pay occasional 
visits to the Metropolis. Curiously enough, I have never had the fortune 
to see any of the Woodcock or Snipe which have often been reported to 
have been seen near Hyde Park Corner; but if these are added to this 
list, which numbers forty-four (exclusive of the doubtful Bullfinch and 
Linnet), and if we add the other species which are known to have occurred 
within the last few years (e.g., Whinchat, Black Redstart, Green Wood- 
pecker, Greater and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Partridge, 
and Storm Petrel), the result is a really long and interesting list of London 
birds.— A. H. MacrpnErson (51, Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, W.). 
The Invasion of Crossbills in the East of France.—The following- 
is an extract from an article that has appeared in the ‘Journal d’Accli, 
matation’ (August, 1888), by M. Brocard, of Besancon, President of the 
Society of Ornithologists of Franche-Comté :—“ Our Society had barely been 
formed a few months when we had the good fortune to be able to announce 
one of the most singular facts in Ornithology—an inva sion of Crossbills 
the ‘ Gipsies of the winged race.’ For my own part, though occupied with 
Ornithology for forty years, I have seen each year in the neighbourhood of 
of Besancon some isolated specimens (of the Crossbill), but never such 
