CROSSBILL. 
69 
Gilbert White records ^ that " a crossbill was killed last 
year in this neighbourhood," but his two other references 
to this bird are dated from Ringmer, in Sussex. 
Longcroft mentions one shot at Havant, in 1810. 
Yarrell records that a large flight was spread over 
England from the summer of 1835 until the year 1839. 
Among them was doubtless the so-called parrot crossbill, 
mentioned in Blyth's edition of White's Selborne as having 
been killed in the New Forest in the autumn of 1835 or 
1836. 
Yarrell remarks that they are particularly numerous in 
Hampshire, in 1838, "twenty having been killed by one 
person during the first week in August." 
In the following year he says that he received from 
Mr. H. L. Long a nest, two eggs and a nestling, which had 
been procured in Holt Forest, all of which specimens were 
exhibited to the Zoological Society soon after, and he 
quotes Mr. Long as having discovered at least three 
nests in this forest in the same year. The nestling above 
mentioned is fully described in the same work. It was 
supposed to be about three weeks old, and its mandibles 
were not yet crossed, Yarrell also examined a specimen 
which was " undoubtedly bred in this country the same 
year (1839), and obtained near Winchester at the end of 
March .... and there was not the slightest indication as 
to which side either mandible would hereafter have been 
inclined." 
The late Frederick Bond possessed three examples of 
the parrot crossbill (which is not now considered a distinct 
species, but a large stout-billed form, which only differs from 
the common species in its varying size), one of them shot 
out of a flock of eleven near Lymington in March, 1842. 
' Letter xi. to Pennant. Selborne. September 9th, 1767. 
H 
