THE CROSSBILL. 281 



Authors, generally, report the crossbill as arriving in Great 

 Britain in June, but it has usually been a late autumnal, or a 

 winter, visitant to Ireland, leaving the country again, early in the 

 spring, like other birds of passage.* Mr. YarrelTs remark with 

 reference to England, that crossbills " were more abundant during 

 the greater part of 1836, 1837, and 1838 than was known for 

 some years before," — might it not be said, than was ever known 

 before in three successive years? — applies to Ireland also, as 

 shown in the preceding notes. In endeavouring to account for 

 the cause of the more frequent visits of crossbills to the British 

 Islands of late years, we should know in the first place, if any 

 change has occurred in their metropolis, or the chief quarter 

 whence they come ; but, ignorant of this, we can only look at 

 home, and see if there be any attraction for them now, that the 

 country was deficient in before. Sir Wm. Jardine observes : " In 

 the south of Scotland, at least, where an immense extent of young 

 pine timber has been planted within thirty years, the crossbill has 

 undoubtedly become more common, and we know now remains 

 through the year."f In Ireland likewise, plantations including 

 the Conifera, but above all, the larch, have greatly increased 

 within the same period, and may be the means of prolonging the 

 stay of crossbills, or inducing them to remain occasionally through- 

 out the year. And as somewhat corroboratory of this, it may 

 be remarked, that plentiful as these birds were in latter years, we 

 have heard but little of damage done by them to orchards, as in 

 earlier times, the seed of the Coniferce having generally afforded 

 abundance of food. Still, I cannot but think that the primary 



* The crossbill appears among the " Irregular Birds of Passage," in a paper by 

 M. Duval-Jouve on the Migratory Birds of Provence, published in the Zoologist, for 

 Oct. 1845. It is there stated, that "this bird is one of the first that arrives here 

 from the north. It is at the end of June and beginning of July that the migration 

 takes place. They are not seen every year, and a very long time often elapses be- 

 tween their visits. * * * They appeared abundantly in 1831, again in 1834, 

 some few in 1837, and in great numbers in 1842. * * * I do not think these 

 birds pass the Mediterranean ; they remain too long in Provence to justify such a 

 conclusion. We meet with them in the summer, sometimes even in the autumn, and 

 they disappear in the winter and spring to nestle I know not where. They sojourn 

 in our large pine-forests." — p. 1115. 



f Naturalist's Library, British Birds, vol. ii. p. 340 (1839). 



