The Scottish Naturalist. 245 



the season they might be expected to be found ; and I think, had 

 the bird been on the mountain at the time, I should more than 

 Hkely have fallen in with it. The only spot I have ever myself 

 noticed the Snow-Bunting in the breeding-dress, was near the 

 top of Ben Muic-Dhu, in Aberdeenshire, on the 21st of June, 

 when I saw a pair at the edge of the snow at an altitude of 3900 

 feet, in full summer plumage, but no nest was found. I have 

 also had a notice from Mr J. T. Carrington, an observing natu- 

 ralist, who for some time resided in Rannoch, and who had tra- 

 versed most of the hills in that vicinity, as well as in other parts 

 adjoining, and he tells me that on the high mountains on Loch 

 Laggan-side, in Inverness-shire, they were to be found in the 

 breeding dress, but that the nests had not been discovered, and 

 the bird had not been noticed by him elsewhere. 



62. Passer domesticus, Ray. (House-Sparrow.) 



The House-Sparrow, everywhere common, has much increased 

 of late years in many places, especially in _ the upper parts of 

 Athole, where the Sparrow, which now abounds, I can recollect, 

 was considered to be rather a scarce bird than otherwise. 



63. Fringilla ccelebs, Linn. (Chaffinch.) 



Of all our birds, this is the most abundant : nothing seems to 

 thin their ranks. In winter assembling in large flocks, the sexes 

 generally separate (hence the name ccelebs), and when driven from 

 the fields by stress of weather, by visiting stack-yards and out- 

 houses, they generally manage to pull through. Hardy by 

 nature, even through the long-protracted winter of 1878-79, their 

 ranks were not perceptibly diminished, being apparently as 

 numerous next spring as ever, though many other species suffered 

 severely. 



64. Fringilla montifringilla, Linn. (Bramble-Finch.) 



During the winter months the Brambling is pretty generally 

 diffused, though rather local in its habits, preferring, for the sake 

 of beech-mast, their natural food, those places in which there is 

 a preponderance of beech-trees. In the lower part of the district 

 they are especially common about Moncreiffe, Methven, Dup- 

 plin, &c. When the mast fails, they resort to the barn-yard, in 

 company with chaffinches, from which, in their winter plumage, 

 at a little distance, they are not easily to be distinguished. 

 Mr Horn mentions that Mr E. T. Booth has taken a nest of the 



