BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
THE COMMON CROSSBILL. 
Loxia curvirostra curvirostra, Linnaeus. 
visSor '■esident in some localities, and a fairly frequent early autumn- 
The earliest record of the Crossbill in Dumfriesshire that I 
have come across occurs in the Dumfries and Galloway Courier 
for July 31st, 1810 : " Within the last ten days past a flock 
of birds have made their appearance about the town of a 
species rarely seen in this country. They are the . . . Cross- 
biU or German Parrot. The last flock seen in Scotland was 
about seventeen years ago." 
In his correspondence with P. J. Selby, Sir WilHam Jardine 
has three interesting local references to this species. In a 
letter dated July 11th, 1837, from Jardine HaU, he states : 
We shot a Crossbill last week the first I have seen near us ; 
a considerable flock appeared but have not since been seen.'' 
In a further letter dated January 19th, 1838, and addressed 
to the same correspondent, he says : " Crossbifls still here, 
nothmgrare arriving." Again on July 2nd, 1839, he writes 
to him from Newbie House (Annan): "At home I have 
seen the Crossbills weekly almost until we came off, there are 
generally three or four together and although frequenting 
pretty nearly the same places (the fir wood where you shot 
the first Buck and down to the turn of the river) ; they do 
not seem exactly as if breeding. It has been told to me 
several years since that they bred in some fir woods up 
Nithsdale, but I never could get at more definite information. 
They have been with us now without leaving for ten months 
and may ultimately take up a permanent and breeding 
residence." In his Naturalist's Library (1839) Sir WiUiam 
Jardine thus describes the species : " Since 1829 and 1830, 
scarcely a year has passed without the Enghsh border 
and the southern counties of Scotland, being visited by 
