BIRDS. 
133 
during the summer, in which latter district it was first seen 
by us in July 1883, in the plantations around Loch Inver, on 
which occasion we saw a good many. Mr. Crawford never 
saw any at Tongue except during one year, about twenty 
years ago, say 1864. Common at Lairg in 1885, and 
exceedingly abundant in the valley of the Cassley in the 
winter of the same year, and had become very common at 
Loch Inver by 1886.^ 
Almost unknown in the north and east of Caithness, Mr. 
Osborne only being aware of two well-authenticated in- 
stances of its occurrence (0. MSS., 1868). Not included 
in S. and O.'s List (1862), but mentioned by Mr. Eeid as 
having been identified by him. 
In 1885 observed only in Dunbeath Glen, where it was 
not rare ; though, no doubt, it occurs also to the southward 
at Berriedale and Langwell, though not perhaps very 
abundantly. 
99, Pinicola enucleator (i.). Pine Grosbeak. 
100. Loxia pityopsittacuSj Bechst. Parrot Crossbill. 
Two examples of this species, male and female, are recorded 
by Mr. Osborne as occurring in Caithness. The male 
alighted on a fishing-boat while some distance at sea off the 
coast, and having been caught alive, was presented by the 
fishermen to Mr. George Auld, druggist, Wick, who kept it 
for some considerable time. The female was picked up 
dead near a plantation at Lyth, and came into Mr. Osborne's 
possession through Mr. Mackie of Wick (0. MSS., 1868), 
and this bird was exhibited at a meeting of the Eoyal 
Physical Society of Edinburgh on 22d January 1862. The 
' In all the many years of our experience of Lairg we do not remember seeing 
anything like so many there as we met with feeding greedily on the seeds of the 
elm-trees, and Buckley also remarked upon their unusual numbers at Glenrossal 
in the autumn. 
