's garden. The two dead ones
he brought me were one in red and the other in green plumage, and the
live one was in green plumage. This one I brought home and kept in my
aviary till March, 1868, when it was killed by a Hawk striking it
through the wires. It was, however, still in the same green plumage when
it was killed as it was when I brought it home, though it had moulted
twice.

The Crossbill did not appear at that time to be very well known in
Guernsey, as neither the bird-catcher nor the people in whose gardens
the birds were had ever seen them before or knew what they were. This
year (1866), however, appears to have been rather an exceptional year
with regard to Crossbills, as I find some recorded in the 'Zoologist'
from Norfolk, the Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Henley-on-Thames, about the
same time; therefore there must have been a rather widely-spread flight.
From that time I did not hear any more of Crossbills in the Islands till
December, 1876, when Mr. Couch sent me a skin of one in reddish plumage,
writing at the same time to say--"The Crossbill I sent from its being
so late in the season when it was shot--the 11th of December; there were
four of them in a tree by Haviland Hall. I happened to go into the
person's house who shot it, and his children had it playing with."

I do not know that there is any evidence of the Crossbill ever having
bred in the Islands, though it seems to have made its appearance there
at almost all times of year. Mr. MacCulloch mentions its feeding on the
apple-pips, and doing damage in the orchards accordingly, and I know it
is generally supposed to do so, and has in some places got the name of
"Shell Apple" in consequence, but though I have several times kept
Crossbills tame, and frequently tried to indulge them with apples and
pips, I have never found them care much about them; and a note of
Professor Newton's, in his edition of 'Yarrell,' seems to agree with
this. He says:--"Of late it has not been often observed feeding on
apples, very possibly owing to the greatly-increased growth of firs, and
especially larches, throughout the country. In Germany it does not seem
ever to have been known as attacking fruit-trees."

The Crossbill is included in Professor Ansted's list, and only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.

73. COMMON STARLING. _Sturnus vulgaris_, Linnaeus. French, "Etourneau
vulgaire."--The Starling is sometimes very numerous