BIRDS 143 



I often heard the facts of his discovery in later years. In the 

 early spring of 1856, Fell happened to be working at his trade 

 as a slater. While passing to and from his work he frequently 

 saw a pair of Crossbills flying about the fir-trees in question. 

 After a short interval, he watched them building. At last, on 

 the 20th of March, he climbed up to the nest, and found that it 

 contained four fresh eggs. He took the nest and its contents. 

 Heysham called at his house soon afterwards and purchased the 

 nest and two eggs. The other two eggs were disposed of to 

 Thomas Armstrong, and have remained ever since in his cabinet. 

 The Crossbill had previously reared its young in Lakeland, near 

 Brampton, and in the neighbourhood of Alston. In the latter 

 district a nesting Crossbill was shot with the two parents on 

 April 13, 1839. The elder Hope assured me that eggs of the 

 Crossbill were taken in the fir woods of Penrith Beacon in 1865. 

 iStot having examined any eggs taken on that occasion, I am un- 

 able to vouch, of personal knowledge, for the authenticity of 

 the eggs then ascribed to this species. There can, however, be 

 little doubt that after large immigrations of this species, a few 

 pairs have repeatedly bred in the Lake district. At the very 

 time when Fell took the above-mentioned nest, Mr. T. C. Heys- 

 ham wrote to Mr. Bell of Cockermouth, under date of February 

 16, 1856: * The Common Crossbill has been unusually abun- 

 dant in the north of England this winter, great numbers having 

 been killed in various parts of Cumberland, Westmorland, and 

 Northumberland.' As regards Westmorland, Dr. Gough included 

 the Crossbill as an occasional visitant to Kendal, mentioning 

 Cowanhead and Crosthwaite as localities in which it had 

 occurred, and he subsequently recorded in his private notes that 

 a female was killed out of a flock of eleven at Bisk-lane, July 

 24, 1868. Though there is more abundant evidence of the pre- 

 sence of Crossbills in Cumberland than in Westmorland or Fur- 

 ness, there can be little doubt that the Crossbill has occurred as 

 frequently in the southern portions of our area as in the north. 

 For example, in 1888, when many Crossbills appeared in such 

 favourite localities for this species in Cumberland, as the woods 

 at Cotehill, Edenhall, and Newby Cross, I received information of 

 birds shot near Grange, Milnthorpe, Barrow in Furness, Kendal, 



