3i4 



THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL: 

 AN ADDITION TO THE YORKSHIRE AVIFAUNA. 



Rev. HENRY H. SLATER, M.A., F.Z.S., 

 Member of tlie British Ornithologists' Union; I'icar of Irchester, Northamptonshire. 



I believe I have the pleasure, for the second time, of adding a new- 

 bird to the Yorkshire list. A Crossbill was shot near Easington in 

 Holderness on August 12th of the present year, and was brought to 

 Mr. Philip Loten. Being much injured by shot, it was not pre- 

 served ; but a wing was put on one side, and shown to me later in 

 the month. I naturally recognised it as belonging to one of the 

 white-winged Crossbills, and Mr. Loten recollected that the mandible 

 left on the specimen (the other was shot away) was longer and 

 slenderer than that of a Common Crossbill, and was laterally 

 flattened. I have carefully compared it with the wings of my own 

 specimens, and come to the conclusion that the bird was a young 

 example of the Two-barred Crossbill (Loxia bifascinta C. L. Brehm). 

 The wing measures 3*5 in., and is exactly similar in size and colours 

 to that of a specimen in my possession, obtained at Archangel by 

 F. Carl Craemers. My American examples (L. leucoptera Gm.) are 

 uniformly shorter in wing measurements, and the nearest in point of 

 age is 3 -3, the largest (an adult male) 3 "35 ; in L. bifasciata, 3^5 to 

 372 (old male). 



[I am informed that this species has occurred in some numbers 

 at Heligoland during the autumn, but I regret I have no further 

 information on this interesting fact. — W.E.C.] 



NO TE—B O TANY. 



Arenaria gothica Fries, a Plant New to West Yorkshire. — On the 



1 2th June last, whilst botanising at Ribblehead, in West Yorkshire, this plant was 

 discovered by me, growing there very luxuriantly and in some profusion, and it 

 has since (September nth) been again found by Mr. F. Arnold Lees, who has 

 greatly interested himself in determining its identification, this having been made 

 by Mr. Arthur Bennett, F.L.S., of Croydon, who has carefully compared it with 

 specimens sent to him from Gothland by Prof. Nilsson. I hope to send for 

 The Naturalist a further fuller account shortly. — Lister Rotheray, Skipton, 

 23rd September, 1889. 



NOTE— MAMMALIA. 



Cat Secreting Food. — Yesterday my cat, barely two years old, brought 

 from a neighbour's garden five small roach, which had been thrown away as unfit 

 for food. For these she scraped a hole under a bay-tree, and having deposited 

 them in it, covered them with earth and dead leaves. In this she was assisted by 

 her kitten of three months old. I have never before seen, neither heard nor 

 read of, the domestic cat thus following the provident habit of the dog. I may 

 remark that I do not keep a dog. — Jas. Eardley Mason, The Sycamores, 



Alford, Lines., 17th August, 1889. 



Naturalist, 



