THE CROSSBILL. 
281 
Authors, generally, report the crossbill as arriving in Great 
Britain in June, but it has usually been a late autumnal, or a 
winter, visitant to Ireland, leaving the country again, early in the 
spring, like other birds of passage.* Mr. Yarrelhs remark with 
reference to England, that crossbills “ were more abundant during 
the greater part of 1836, 1837, and 1838 than was known for 
some years before,” — might it not be said, than was ever known 
before in three successive years? — applies to Ireland also, as 
shown in the preceding notes. In endeavouring to account for 
the cause of the more frequent visits of crossbills to the British 
Islands of late years, we should know in the first place, if any 
change has occurred in their metropolis, or the chief quarter 
whence they come ; but, ignorant of this, we can oidy look at 
home, and see if there be any attraction for them now, that the 
country was deficient in before. Sir Wm. Jardine observes : "In 
the south of Scotland, at least, where an immense extent of young 
pine timber has been planted within thirty years, the crossbill has 
undoubtedly become more common, and we know now remains 
through the year.”t In Ireland likewise, plantations including 
the Conifer ee } but above all, the larch, have greatly increased 
within the same period, and may be the means of prolonging the 
stay of crossbills, or inducing them to remain occasionally through- 
out the year. And as somewhat corroboratory of this, it may 
be remarked, that plentiful as these birds were in latter years, we 
have heard but little of damage done by them to orchards, as in 
earlier times, the seed of the Conferee having generally afforded 
abundance of food. Still, I cannot but think that the primary 
* The crossbill appears among the “ Irregular Birds of Passage,” in a paper by 
M. Duval-Jouve on the Migratory Birds of Provence, published in the Zoologist, for 
Oct. 1845. It is there stated, that “this bird is one of the first that arrives here 
from the north. It is at the end of June and beginning of. July that the migration 
takes place. They are not seen every year, and a very long time often elapses be- 
tween their visits. * * * They appeared abundantly in 1831, again in 1834, 
some few in 1837, and in great numbers in 1842. * * * I do not think these 
birds pass the Mediterranean ; they remain too long in Provence to justify such a 
conclusion. We meet with them in the summer, sometimes even in the autumn, and 
they disappear in the winter and spring to nestle I know not where. They sojourn 
in our large pine-forests.” — p. 1115. 
f Naturalist’s Library, British Birds, vol. ii. p. 340 (1839). 
