Crossbill in North Wales.—Under date Dec. 7th, Mr. Arthur C. Parker forwarded an adult male of this species (Loxia curvirostra) from Bettws-y-coed for identification. He says "there are more cocks than hens, and the birds have now been hereabout three weeks." Subsequently Mr. Parker informed me the flock is only a small one, and that unfortunately many of its members have been wantonly destroyed. To the best of my knowledge, the last incursion of these birds in North Wales occurred in December, 1887; but a flock of them was seen in Delamere Forest, Cheshire, at the end of 1889.—Robert Newstead (Grosvenor Museum, Chester).
Nesting of the Goshawk in Yorkshire.—A beautiful fully adult female Goshawk (Astur palumbarius) has recently[1] been presented to the Norwich Castle Museum, which was shot at its nest a few days before the 13th of May, 1893, by Mr. W.M. Frank, a keeper on an estate at Westerdale, Grosmont, Yorkshire. Mr. Frank states that the nest, which contained four fresh eggs, was placed on the branch of a slender spruce-fir near the trunk, and about twenty feet from the ground. It was very large and flat, and the bird was very wild and difficult to get a shot at; he had to build a shelter of boughs to hide in, and enticed her by imitating her cry. Whether she had a mate, Mr. Frank is unable to state with certainty; he is under the impression that she had, but he did not see two birds together. Two of the eggs were sent to the Norwich Museum with the bird, but the other two are lost or broken. The Goshawk is in the present day one of the rarest of its family in eastern England, and in mature plumage so seldom met with that I only know of a single individual which has been procured in Norfolk, perhaps the county most favoured by its visits; and since the instance reported by Colonel Thornton, who received a nestling from the forest of Rothiemurchus "prior to 1804," I believe there is no authentic instance of its having bred in Great Britain, although it has been suspected of having done so. That this bird is not a more frequent visitor to this country is perhaps a matter of surprise, seeing that it is a common species in Central Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia, and there are still many apparently suitable localities for its nesting should it show an inclination to do so; but whether it would escape the attentions of the ubiquitous gamekeeper in such an event is very doubtful. Mr. Headley Noble, who was instrumental in bringing this interesting occurrence to light, suggests that the bird may have been an escaped trained Falcon, arguing from the facts that one bird only was seen, that the eggs were quite fresh, and that the bird was mutilated by the loss of a toe. As to the first suggestion, it has been stated by Mr. Frank that he was by no
- ↑ Note received Dec. 6th, 1898.— Ed.
