318 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vn. 



[This question was discussed in our pages (Vol. III., 

 pp. 261-2) by Dr. C. B. Ticehurst, who came to the con- 

 clusion that in all the subspecies of Loxia curvirostra the 

 crossing to either side was equal. In specimens of L. leucop- 

 tera examined by Dr. Ticehurst, the upper mandible passed 

 to the left of the lower twice as often as to the right, but of 

 this species only sixty-nine specimens were examined. 



Dr. J. J. Dwight {Sequence of Plumages and Moults of 

 Passerine Birds of New York, p. 176) states of the American 

 Crossbill {Loxia c. minor) that in sixty-eight specimens 

 examined " the upper mandible crosses to the right in 

 thirty-eight, and to the left in thirty." Of two hundred 

 and thirty-two specimens of Loxia c. curvirostra which I 

 have examined (not including those in the British Museum) 

 one hundred and nineteen were dextral (as defined by Mr. 

 Christy) and one hundred and thirteen sinistral. The bill 

 begins to cross as soon as the primaries are fully grown, 

 but before there is any sign of crossing the upper man- 

 dible is slightly curved downwards at the tip and projects 

 beyond the lower mandible. When the tip of the lower 

 mandible begins to grow upwards, it seems to me that it 

 must be a matter of chance to which side of the upper it 

 passes. — H.F.W.] 



TREE-CREEPER HATCHING EGGS OF REDSTART. 



In 1912 I nailed up a piece of bark about six feet from the 

 ground over a crevice in a Wellingtonia in a garden at 

 Sywell, near Northampton. On May 21st, 1913, I found a 

 Tree-Creeper's nest behind the bark, with the Creeper sitting ; 

 in the nest were two Tree-Creeper's eggs and six blue eggs. 

 In time the blue eggs hatched ; the Creeper's did not. I 

 never saw a Redstart in the garden, but the Creepers 

 fed the young birds regularly and they did well. I 

 examined them when they were ready to fly, and found 

 they had incipient red tails and were, in fact, Redstarts. 

 There was no one about who would be in the least likely to 

 meddle with the nest. Redstarts are not so common in the 

 vicinity as to make a substitution of the eggs probable ; 

 moreover, it would have been extremely difficult to drop 

 the eggs in without breaking them, as the distance from 

 hole to nest was considerable. It therefore seems likely 

 that the eggs were laid there by a Redstart. 



A. E. Aldous. 



