214 
FKINGILLID^. 
Mr. Long, of Hampton Lodge, near Farnham, who 
contributed the following account to Loudon's “Magazine 
of Natural History," tells me that the Crossbills left 
his neighbourhood soon after it was written, and have 
not been seen since, making good a remark of Mr. 
Hancock's, that these vagrant birds build their nests 
wherever they happen to be at the breeding season. 
“This day, 13th of April, 1839, I have had the satisfac¬ 
tion of receiving a nest with four eggs, from the Holt 
forest in this neighbourhood. This is the third nest 
that has been met with in the Holt. The first was 
taken with two eggs; and then, on the 7th of April, 
one with four young birds, apparently above a fort¬ 
night old, which would date the commencement of the 
nest early in the month of March. These three nests 
were all found in the thick top of a young Scotch fir, 
of about thirteen or fourteen years growth." 
From Mr. Brown, of Cirencester, I have the following 
very interesting information with regard to two nests of 
this species, seen by him in that neighbourhood in the 
spring of 1839. He had been spending the winter in 
Malta, and did not return home till it was too late to 
obtain their eggs. One of these nests was placed upon 
the lower branch of a Scotch fir-tree, about ten feet 
above the ground, and four feet from the extremity of 
the branch. The young ones, two in number, flew from 
the nest when discovered, and were afterwards watched 
by Mr. Brown as the old ones came to feed them. This 
was on the 9 th of April, so that the nest must have been 
built in February, and the eggs laid at the end of that 
month, or very early in March., “ The outside of the 
nest was a framework of the dry twigs of the larch-fir ; 
from the base all round the sides within that frame, was 
laid a thick mass of bents, and slender stalks of wild 
