Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/516

484 accompanied by another bird which he was sure had red about its plumage* This occurred within two miles of Ringwood, on the west side of the Avon, and near some young fir woods. I paid very little attention to the man's story at the time, as I often have some extraordinary tales brought about birds; but, as the Crossbills have put in an appearance both before and since, there is a possibility it was that species the man had observed. I give the story for what it is worth; and I may further mention that, especially in September, the birds were comparatively common in the same locality, and the man brought me a very brightly coloured male, and said he believed it was the same sort of bird he had seen in the summer. As the female Crossbill is of a greenish yellow colour, there is a possibility—perhaps very vague, some would say—of the man being correct about the species nesting in the trees near his house. I regret I did not investigate the matter at the time. Several of the birds I have seen were very brightly plumaged—one in particular was almost uniformly of a very handsome orange-red from head to tail; others were in various stages of dull greenish yellow and pink, and a few were darkly streaked upon the breast. Many people who saw the birds noted the well-known characteristic of the species, in that they were so "tame" and comparatively unsuspicious of danger; in some instances they were caught and caged, and amused their captors by the odd antics and dexterous manner in which they secured the seeds of the fir-cones; within a very short time of their capture fearlessly feeding in sight of any person, and curiously twisting their incurved beaks in and out the wires of their prison. Some specimens fell to the catapults of the roving schoolboys, who took advantage of the docility of the species and their Tit-like habits as they hung and swayed upon the branches where food was to be obtained. With regard to the curvature of the beak, in the largest half of the birds I saw the upper mandible was curved to the right; but this only proves how indiscriminately this "crossing" occurs, for on a former occasion, on examination of a number of specimens, I observed just the reverse; but any person examining the head and neck cannot fail to note the apparent bulk of these parts, and on dissection of same must be struck with the strength of muscles which enables the mandibles to be worked with such extraordinary lateral power. The fleshy protuberances on the sides of the skull remind one of the head of the Hawfinch.— (Ringwood, Hants).

Heron Nest of Wire.—Sir Harry Bromley has given me that wonderful Heron nest made the greater part of wire. There must be yards and yards of it. How the bird got it and where I do not know, and how it ever got it through the trees and twisted it into shape. Many naturalists have seen it, and all think it the most wonderful nest they ever saw.— (Rainworth Lodge, Mansfield, Notts).