224 



CROSSBILLS IN HELIGOLAND. 



Contributed by JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U. 



In a letter dated July ist, Mr. Gatke sends the following interesting 

 notes of the occurrence of the Crossbill on migration at Heligoland 



' Have you seen any Crossbills {Loxia curvirostrd) ? We are 

 swarming here with them. Since the i6th of June there have been 

 flights from to, 20, 50 — -and sometimes all the hawthorns in my 

 garden you know so well are crammed with them. There must 

 during some days have been hundreds dispersed amongst the foliage. 

 When they are feeding they remain quite dumb, and only when 

 taking wing the whole chorus begins, calling " ciit, ciit, cut." I have 

 just mounted an old male, almost as red all over as a male Frin- 

 gilla erythriniis : a few with white bars have beet? reported, but 

 I have not seen one. They are of all shades, from lemon rump to 

 orange scarlet, and almost carmine, but the greater number, as you 

 may fancy, are grey birds, but not a single striped young one amongst 

 them. These birds are rather out of date ; they are not regular 

 visitors to this island, years intervene without any being seen, and 

 when they do appear it has almost invariably been in August, with 

 boisterous north-westerly winds and rain ; this year flight has been 

 two months too early, and came with fine sunny weather. All are in 

 excellent plumage — wings, tail, and all.' 



Mr. Thos. Winson writes from the Spurn under date of July 17th — 

 ' Some Crossbills were shot here last week, and one caught alive and 

 kept a week on board the Bull Lightship, when it escaped and flew 

 away.' ===== 



NOTES— ORNITHOLOG Y. 



Arrival of Crossbills on the Yorkshire Coast. — Crossbills, I have just 

 heard, have arrived on the Holderness Coast. This is a most interesting fact, and 

 especially so when taken in conjunction with Mr. Gatke's excellent note on 

 this species at Heligoland on this page. I hope to have further informa- 

 tion furnished, and invite others to send in any notes they may have on the 

 appearance of this species in the North of England. — VV. Eagle Clarke, 

 Edinburgh, July 20th, 1888. 



Siskins in North Derbyshire. — While on the moors of North Derbyshire 

 on the 8th December, 1887, Mr. West (curator to the Rotherham Naturalists' 

 Society) and myself had the good fortune to come across a small flock of Siskins 

 {Chrysomitris spinns), consisting of three males and two females, all of v^^hich we 

 secured on account of their rarity, although it seemed a pity to take such harmless 

 lives. There was a heavy fall of snow on the ground at the time, and the birds 

 were feeding in a small clump of alders which we were beating through in search 

 of Woodcock. I had never met the bird wild before, although I had seen it in 

 a caged state. Mr. Cordeaux speaks of it as very rare, so I thought the occurrence 

 worth recording. — F. W. Dickinson, Rotherham. 



Naturalist, 



