England
1909.
Aug.19-23
(No 10)
Lyndhurst, New Forest.
  I was disappointed in the bird life I found in
the forest, even after making allowance for the fact that it
was an off season for birds. There were Robins singing
everywhere and here and there a Wren but I heard little
else and saw only a very few birds of any size, except
an occasional Rook or Wood Pigeon and two or three Jays.
I did meet with Crossbills, four or five of them feeding
in the top of a tall pine. I was attracted to them by their
pip-pip call notes exactly like those of our Red Crossbill.
They were all females or immature males, obviously much 
larger than our birds. I saw them prying open the
long cones of the pine (P. sylvestris) although they were
still green.
Birds of the forest
  But if bird life was somewhat meagrely represented in
the depths of the forest the case was far otherwise about
its outskirts. Wherever there were farms, grown fields and
gardens I saw as many birds as anywhere else in
England. Evidently they are fond of haunting cultivated
lands, where food is abundant.
  On the morning of the 22nd I heard in the garden
of the Crown Hotel a song which in New England I
should have presumed at once to be that of Spinus tristis. 
A little later I heard the calls of young birds observed
previously like those of the young of our Goldfinch. Soon
after this I spied one of the birds perched on a
chimney top. It was only just out of the nest &
still in first plumage but as the colors & markings
of the wings & tail were identical with those of
the Old World Goldfinch I was satisfied that it
belonged to that species. I waited a long time in hopes
that the mother bird would come to find it but she did not.
Goldfinches