28 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Crossbill in North Wales. — Under date Dec. 7th, Mr. Arthur C. 

 Parker forwarded au adult male of this species (Loccia curvirostra) from 

 Bettws-y-coed for identification. He says " there are more cocks than 

 hens, and the birds have now been hereabout three weeks." Subsequently 

 Mr. Parker informed me the flock is only a small one, and that unfortu- 

 nately many of its members have been wantonly destroyed. To the best 

 of my knowledge, the last incursion of these birds in North Wales occurred 

 in December, 1887 ; but a flock of them was seen in Delamere Forest, 

 Cheshire, at the end of 1889. — Robert Newstead (Grosvenor Museum, 

 Chester). 



Nesting of the Goshawk in Yorkshire. — A beautiful fully adult 

 female Goshawk (A stur palumbarius) has recently-!' been presented to the 

 Norwich Castle Museum, which was shot at its nest a few days before the 

 13th of May, 1893, by Mr. W. M. Frank, a keeper on an estate at 

 Westerdale, Grosmont, Yorkshire. Mr. Frank states that the nest, which 

 contained four fresh eggs, was placed on the branch of a slender spruce-fir 

 near the trunk, and about twenty feet from the ground. It was very large 

 and flat, and the bird was very wild and difficult to get a shot at ; he had 

 to build a shelter of boughs to hide in, and enticed her by imitating her 

 cry. Whether she had a mate, Mr. Frank is unable to state with certainty ; 

 he is under the impression that she had, but he did not see two birds 

 together. Two of the eggs were sent to the Norwich Museum with the 

 bird, but the other two are lost or broken. The Goshawk is in the present 

 day one of the rarest of its family in eastern England, and in mature 

 plumage so seldom met with that I only know of a single individual which 

 has been procured in Norfolk, perhaps the county most favoured by its 

 visits ; and since the instance reported by Colonel Thornton, who received 

 a nestling from the forest of Rothiemurchus " prior to 1804," I believe 

 there is no authentic instance of its having bred in Great Britain, although 

 it has been suspected of having done so. That this bird is not a more 

 frequent visitor to this country is perhaps a matter of surprise, seeing that 

 it is a common species in Central Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia, and 

 there are still many apparently suitable localities for its nesting should it 

 show an inclination to do so ; but whether it would escape the attentions 

 of the ubiquitous gamekeeper in such an event is very doubtful. Mr. 

 Headley Noble, who was instrumental in bringing this interesting occur- 

 rence to light, suggests that the bird may have been an escaped trained 

 Falcon, arguing from the facts that one bird only was seen, that the eggs 

 were quite fresh, and that the bird was mutilated by the loss of a toe. As 

 to the first suggestion, it has been stated by Mr. Frank that he was by no 



* Note received Dec. 6th, 1898.— Ed. 



