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i) 



it would scarcely be right to exclude all notice of it. The flock, in all probability, may have 

 just passed out of the county, and in a few minutes afterwards might have returned to it again." 

 In May 1846 several were killed from a flock at Drinkstone, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk; 

 and one of these is now in the possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney. In 1845 a considerable number 

 appeared in Cumberland ; and nine or more were obtained in the same locality, either at the 

 same time or in the following year. Of these, two were lent to Mr. Yarrell by Captain Johnson, 

 of Walton House, while a third, obtained at the same time, was sent, together with one of the 

 Suffolk specimens, by Heysham to Doubleday, from whose collection it has passed to Mr. Steven- 

 son's. Professor Newton informs me that another of the Suffolk specimens is also in Mr. Gurney's 

 possession ; and about the same time, it is believed, Doubleday shot a young bird in his own 

 garden at Epping. There does not appear to be any authentic instance of its occurrence in 

 Scotland; but it was recorded as having been obtained in Ireland as early as January 11th, 1802, 

 when, according to Templeton, in a letter to Dawson Turner (Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. p. 309), one 

 was shot at Grenville, near Belfast. Mr. Blake-Knox also more recently records (Zool. s. s. p. 1376) 

 a female or young bird obtained by him in Ireland. 



I am indebted to Professor Newton for a list, compiled by him for publication in the edition 



of Yarrell's ' British Birds ' on which he is now engaged, of instances in which " White-winged 



Crossbills " are said to have occurred without the distinction between the Nearctic and Palsearctic 



forms being observed or capable of later determination, which I give as follows: — "1. Latham, 



in a contribution to the posthumous edition (1812) of Pennant's 'British Zoology' (i. p. 428), 



says that, before knowing of the Irish specimen mentioned in the text, he had been informed of 



the bird having been met with in Scotland, but the report was too uncertain for him to notice. 



2. Mr. Edward, writing in 1859 (Zool. p. 6631), declared that one stormy winter, about fifty 



years before, a large flock appeared at Banff. 3. Hoy informed the author that, some time prior 



to 1839, Mr. Seaman, of Ipswich, had shot one, apparently near that town. 4. Bary, in 1844, 



said (Zool. p. 643) he had been told of a pair of Crossbills with white bars on their wings having 



been obtained, about six years before, in the Isle of Wight. 5. The late Archibald Jerdon, as 



accurate an observer as his more distinguished brother, stated that he examined one, apparently 



a hen, shot in February 1841, near Bonjedward, in Roxburghshire. 6. In March 1845, Mr. J. 



Cooper had one alive, which was caught near Birmingham, as Strickland informed the author. 



7. Mr. Pi. J. Bell mentions (Zool. p. 1247) a hen shot, while accompanying Fieldfares, at 



Mickleover, near Derby, in November 1845. 8. Salmon, in a contribution to Newman's 'Letters 



of Rusticus,' published in 1849 (p. 158), notices a cock bird shot in Unsted Wood, Surrey, and 



then belonging to Mr. Nicholson, of Waverley Abbey. 9. Mr. Sterland says that four were shot 



at Edwinstowe, in Nottinghamshire, in the spring of 1849. And, 10. Mr. Prideaux, in 1852, 



recorded (Zool. p. 3474) one at Taunton, without giving any date for it. Several of these 



particulars having hitherto been erroneously given by various authors, the foregoing list, which 



so far as it goes, is believed to be accurate, may be found useful." 



In Scandinavia the present species has occurred now and again, but merely as a straggler. 

 Mr. Collett says that it is of very rare occurrence in Norway, and has only been observed near 

 Christiania by Mr. Siebke. One, now in the University Museum, was shot in August 1840, and 



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