339 
Great Invasion of Crossbills in 1909 
of a very few cases, all the Crossbills that have come to 
our shores across the North Sea belong to the typical 
continental form, L. curvirostra, or L. curvirostra typica 
for those who adopt trinomials. Occasional examples of the 
Two-barred Crossbill (L. bifasciata) have been met with 
among the flocks of the commoner species, and a few spe¬ 
cimens of this more eastern Crossbill are recorded as having 
been obtained, notably at Fair Isle and in the Flannan Islands. 
The greater number of the recorded occurrences of Cross¬ 
bills in the British Isles having been carefully detailed in 
f British Birds/ it is hardly necessary to recapitulate them 
here. 
France. —As was to be expected, last year’s invasion of 
Crossbills extended westward to France, although its ex¬ 
pansion and numerical importance there were apparently 
less considerable than further eastward and throughout the 
Central European countries. It also seems to have been 
somewhat more marked in the east of France itself than in 
the west, but this perhaps is not surprising. 
To the kindness of Dr. Louis Bureau, Director of the 
Natural History Museum at Nantes, I am indebted for the 
following interesting particulars regarding the occurrence of 
the Crossbill in some of the French departments. 
Cote-dlOr. —According to M. Paul Paris, Crossbills were 
first observed by him in this district about the middle of 
August, and frequently after that date. On the 18tli of 
October he received an example of the species, in the flesh, 
from Dijon. 
Aube. —Crossbills are reported as having been observed in 
this district about the end of August. Both here and in 
Cote-d’Or the species is of irregular passage, and had not 
been previously observed for three or four years. 
Haute-Saone. —M. Paris received three examples, in the 
flesh, from this district about the end of September, and saw 
a flock of Crossbills settled on a fir-tree opposite the Autun 
Museum on the 11th of October. 
Haute-Marne. —M. Paris received an example from this 
district on the 27th of October, from which date until the 
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