484 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
accompanied by another bird which he was sure had red about its plumage: 
This occurred within two miles of Ringwood, on the west side of the Avon, 
and near some young fir woods. I paid very little attention to the man’s 
story at the time, as I often have some extraordinary tales brought about 
birds ; but, as the Crossbills have put in au appearance both before and 
since, there is a possibility it was that species the man had observed. I give 
the story for what it is worth; and I may further mention that, especially 
in September, the birds were comparatively common in the same locality, 
and the man brought me a very brightly coloured male, and said he 
believed it was the same sort of bird he had seen in the summer. As the 
female Crossbill is of a greenish yellow colour, there is.a possibility— per- 
haps very vague, some would say—of the man being correct about the 
species nesting in the trees near his house. I regret I did not investigate 
the matter at the time. Several of the birds I have seen were very brightly 
plumaged—one in particular was almost uniformly of a very handsome 
orange-red from head to tail ; others were in various stages of dull greenish 
yellow and pink, and a few were darkly streaked upon the breast. Many 
people who saw the birds noted the well-known characteristic of the species, 
in that they were so ‘‘tame” and comparatively unsuspicious of danger ; in 
some instances they were caught and caged, and amused their captors by 
the odd antics and dexterous manner in which they secured the seeds of the 
fir-cones; within a very short time of their capture fearlessly feeding in 
sight of any person, and curiously twisting their incurved beaks in and out 
the wires of their prison. Some specimens fell to the catapults of the 
roving schoolboys, who took advantage of the docility of the species and 
their Tit-like habits as they hung and swayed upon the branches where food 
was to be obtained. With regard to the curvature of the beak, in the 
largest half of the birds I saw the upper mandible was curved to the right ; 
but this only proves how indiscriminately this ‘“ crossing ” occurs, for on a 
former occasion, on examination of a number of specimens, I observed just 
the reverse; but any person examining the head and neck cannot fail to 
note the apparent bulk of these parts, and on dissection of same must be 
struck with the strength of muscles which enables the mandibles to be 
worked with such extraordinary lateral power. ‘The fleshy protuberances on 
the sides of the skull remind one of the head of the Hawfinch.—G. C. 
CorBIn (Ringwood, Hants). 
Heron Nest of Wire.—Sir Harry Bromley has given me that wonderful 
Heron nest made the greater part of wire. ‘There must be yards and yards 
of it. How the bird got it and where I do not know, and how it ever got it 
through the trees and twisted it into shape. Many naturalists have seen 
it, and all think it the most wonderful nest they ever saw.—J. WHITAKER 
(Rainworth Lodge, Manstield, Notts). 
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