描述Matthew Paris 1251 sketch of Crossbill eating fruit.jpg
English: Mediaeval sketch by Matthew Paris in his Chronica Majora (1251) of a Crossbill, Loxia curvirostra, holding a fruit in its beak. He has extended a line of the text into the margin below the drawing, with the Latin words Alaudis parum majores ('a little bigger than Larks').
日期
来源
The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora
作者
Suzanne Lewis (modern text); Matthew Paris (mediaeval author and artist)
Matthew Paris recorded in the text that the birds were "a little bigger than Larks, and eat the pippins of the apples [pomorum grana] but no other part of them... They had the parts of the beak crossed [cancellatas] by which they divided the apples as with a forceps or knife." The birds had rarely been seen before, but irrupted into Britain in large numbers in that year, causing damage to orchards.