282 
ERINGILLIM. 
cause of their more frequent migrations, must be looked for 
in their princial abode. A friend of excellent judgment, to 
whom this idea was mentioned, is, however, rather inclined to 
consider crossbills as a wandering tribe, having no proper home, 
but who pitch their tent, and take up their residence at a place 
just so long as it suits them, without contemplating a return to 
any particular region. 
I have not had the gratification of seeing crossbills in a wild 
state in Ireland; but early in September, 1837, my attention was 
directed to them by Mr. Selby and Sir Wm. Jardine, as they were 
on wing from one plantation to another, in the demesne at Twizell, 
and at Chillingham Park, Northumberland. On the 9th of Oct., 
1847, when in a fine wood of oaks and beeches, adjoining the 
beautiful village of Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, I was 
attracted by the peculiar call-note of some bird that I had not 
before heard, and discovered that it proceeeded from this species, 
one of which was seen perched on the summit of a tall oak tree : 
— its bill looked very large, from a considerable distance. 
Bewick and Yarrell, in their respective histories of British 
Birds, treat us with entertaining and copious accounts of the ap- 
pearance of crossbills in England in the olden time, when like a 
more potent enemy — “ they were attacked with slings and cross- 
bows,” valiantly “ never thinking of flying off till some of them, 
stricken by stones, or apples, or leaden bullets, fell dead from the 
trees .” The grand point of view in which birds were considered 
at that period (1593), is not omitted to be mentioned, as in one 
account it is stated, that “ their flesh was sufficiently savoury and 
delicate,” and in the other, that “ they were very good meate.” 
The Parrot Crossbill (Loxia pytiopsittacus) is included in Tem- 
pleton’s Catalogue of Irish Birds, from the supposed occurrence of 
the species in one instance. A coloured drawing of the specimen, of 
natural size, was fortunately made by that accomplished naturalist. It 
represents the L. curvirosira with the point of the lower mandible not 
reaching beyond the profile of the upper. At the foot of the drawing, 
L. pytiopsittacus is followed by a note of doubt, which does not ap- 
pear in the printed catalogue. The bird was shot by Rainey Maxwell, 
