348 Ornithological Notes. By George Bolam. 



fledged birds, attended by their parents, was soon discovered at work upon 

 the peas, and two of the young ones, as above stated, were killed by his 

 son. They were preserved by Mr George Thompson in Alnwick, who told 

 the keeper of their rarity, and I am glad to be able to add that no more 

 of the brood was then destroyed. 



During the hn.rd weather in February last (when, by the way, 40 degrees 

 of frost were registered one night at Chillingham) an adult male Hawfinch 

 was picked up dead amongst the snow in the Dairy Grounds at Alnwick 

 Castle, and was also preserved by Mr Thompson, who informs me that 

 several others were observed in the Park about the same time ; one man 

 telling him that he had seen over a dozen together in one flock. 



It is interesting to observe in this connection that Mr Selby, in his 

 Catalogue published in 1830-31, mentions a Hawfinch which he had seen 

 "a few years ago at Alnwick Castle,and which was killed at Huln Abbey." 



The late Mr Brotherston of Kelso recorded a female, shot at Borthwick- 

 shiels, Hawick, in the end of August 1883 ; and I was informed by Mr 

 Thomas Darling of Berwick, that he had seen one, and been quite close to 

 it on the sea banks near Scremerston Sea Houses on 28th Oct. 1880. 



Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra, Linnaeus. 



The Cro.ssbill has always been noted for being most erratic in its move- 

 ments ; and in the summer of 1888 there was a more or less regular 

 eruption of the species ; large flocks being noticed in many parts of both 

 England and Scotland, as well as in Heligoland and at other places. The 

 first note I have of their occurrence in this district was early in February, 

 when a party appeared at Twizell House — the seat of the late Mr 

 Selby ; — and a large flock frequented for a few days the larch trees in the 

 plantations at Swinhoe Broomford, near Chathill. In the neighbourhood 

 of Wooler, a considerable flock was also noticed on the 10th of that month, 

 and five individuals shot out of it, and preserved by Mr Wm. Hall, are now 

 in my collection. At the end of June they were in swarms on Heligoland 

 (M. Gatke in 'Naturalist' for 1888, p. 224) ; and on 16th July Mr Robert 

 Patten picked up a dead specimen in his garden at Rock. I saw this bird, 

 which was in very red plumage, in Mr Thompson's shop in Alnwick, on 

 22nd August following, when I was also shown another specimen — also a 

 very bright red one — which had been sent to Mr Paynter, from the Fame 

 Islands about a week before. A flock of about seventy had appeared one 

 night at one of the lighthouses on the Islands, and this individual had 

 managed to kill himself upon the glass. 



On 19th April 1889 I saw a flock of about twenty very noisy birds,which 

 were feeding upon the fir cones in the wood about a mile below Abbey St 

 Bathans ; and on passing Elba a few days afterwards, I heard their call- 

 notes still proceeding from the trees. In the 'Field' of 18th May, Mr Adam 

 Elliot recorded that, when looking after insects on the 7th of that month, 

 he had come upon a party of seven or eight Crossbills in a wood near 

 Jedburgh ; and I saw at Framlington a stuffed individual, which had been 

 killed in the Reed Water district, and was looked upon as a great curiosity. 



