NOTES AND QUERIES. 347 



the birds for my inspection, informs me that there were a good many 

 Crossbills in the Firs during the winter of 1903-4. As Dr. Hartert 

 has recently separated the English Crossbill (L. curvirostra anglica) 

 subspecifically from the Scotch birds (L. c. scotica), a description of the 

 nestling plumage may be of interest. Description : Basal half of 

 lower mandible and greater part of upper mandible dark horn colour ; 

 anterior half of lower mandible and lower edge of upper yellowish 

 white. Feathers of crown, cheeks, and nape have broad dark smoke- 

 brown median stripe ; rest of feathers grey, tinged with yellow, especi- 

 ally behind the eye and on the cheeks, and showing more grey on the 

 nape. Throat, breast, and abdomen greyish white, tinged with yellow, 

 with narrow smoke-brown median stripe to feathers. Scapulars and 

 wing-coverts dark smoke-brown edged with ochre. Primaries smoke- 

 brown, with very narrow ochreous anterior edges and tips faintly 

 edged light brown. Secondaries more distinctly tipped with ochreous 

 yellow. Feathers of back dark smoke-brown in middle, sides ochreous 

 yellow. Tail wanting. — F. C. R. Jourdain (Clifton Vicarage, Ash- 

 burne, Derbyshire). 



Late Nest of Yellow Bunting. — When out walking on the 27th of 

 August, I came across a beautiful new nest of the Yellow Bunting 

 (Ember iza citrinella) containing one egg. I returned to it on the 80th, 

 and found four eggs, but no sign of the bird. However, on the follow- 

 ing day I found the hen bird sitting on the nest. Considering that the 

 elevation of this spot is nearly 600 ft., this seems to me a very late 

 record, even for a Yellow Bunting. This bird does not winter in 

 this locality. — T. Thornton Mackeith (The Hall, Caldwell, Renfrew- 

 shire). 



Notes on the Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis). — During the 

 present year a pair of Green Woodpeckers utilized for nesting purposes 

 an old excavation in a pollard willow, in which last year a brood of 

 Wrynecks were reared. The nesting site being within a few yards of 

 my house, I had ample opportunity for observation. When food was 

 brought to the young by the parent bird it usually settled upon a limb 

 of the tree growing upwards from the trunk several feet lower than the 

 position of the nesting hole ; it would then by a succession of back- 

 ward jumps descend until it reached the trunk of the tree, and then 

 climb upwards — a retrogressive movement I cannot call to mind with 

 any other bird. A quantity of food is brought to the young at a time, 

 but one more clamorous than the others would often receive all. The 

 food is carefully placed (evidently by the action of the parent bird's 

 tongue) well inside the throat of the young. — J. Steele-Elliott 

 (Dowles Manor, Shropshire). 



