202 
Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain on the 
foot-hills, nesting, as Whitehead remarks, in the olive and 
cork trees, often quite close to villages. It also breeds in 
ilex and pine trees. Unlike the Goldfinch, however, it is 
also met with in the clearings of the pine-forest, where 
there is an undergrowth of heath ( Erica ), up to at least 
3000 ft., and here the nest may occasionally be found in 
tail heath. The tiny structure with its characteristic lining 
of hair is, as a rule, difficult to find, even where the birds are 
common. Not one of the seven or eight nests examined 
contained more than four eggs. Whitehead took eggs on 
April 8 and 16; but although one nest was found with 
fledged young on May 13, seven others all contained eggs 
between May 9 and 30. 
20. Loxia curvirostra curvirostra L. Crossbill. 
Resident in the pine-forests, where Whitehead describes it 
as fairly common, and saw a few family-parties of six or seven 
on the wing in May. Out of several shot, none were in 
bright red plumage. Hartert, who has compared specimens, 
ascribes them to the ordinary continental form. I met with 
one flock of perhaps twenty birds in high-lying pine-forest 
on May 27, all of which appeared to be in yellowish-green 
plumage. It was interesting to watch them at work on the 
cones which still hung on a dead pine, but after a few 
seeds had been extracted the cone was often allowed to fall 
to the ground. Among a series of Corsican bird-skins 
recently acquired by the Hon. W. Rothschild are those of 
two adult Crossbills, one in red plumage, and also a nestling. 
All are from Vizzavona, and the old birds agree well with 
the ordinary continental race, except in being shorter- 
winged (95 and 90 mm ). The nestling, which cannot have 
left the nest for more than two or three weeks, is dated 
September 25, so that eggs must have been laid about the 
end of July or early in August ! 
21. Fringilla ccelebs tyrrhenica Schiebel. Corsican 
Chaffinch. 
Fringilla ccelebs tyrrhenica Schiebel, Ornith. Jahrbuch, 
xxi. p. 102 (1910—Corsica). 
