NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 61 



of the fruit being th^ only part eaten ; the bird then reaches 

 for another berry, when the same proceedings are repeated. 

 Occasionally they descend to the ground, and may be seen 

 hopping about with chaffinches and other birds. 



During the winter months they seem very solitary feed- 

 ing alone. Should one attempt to alight upon a tree ou 

 which another is feeding, a battle is at once commenced, and 

 the vanquished bird is obliged to seek its food elsewhere. 

 I have only once, during the winter, seen two birds feeding 

 on the same tree at one time, and in this ease it only lasted 

 a few minutes, when one had notice to quit. 



A pair of hawfinches bred at Fishponds in 1894, bringing 

 up one or more broods, and p^gain during the last summer 

 the same, or another pair, brought up a nest of young ones 

 at the same place. The nest, which was loose in texture, 

 was placed in the branches of a pear tree, and was not 

 noticed until the young were fully fledged, I also know of 

 several other nests having been found around Bristol, 



I once kept a hawfinch for a year or two. As a cage bird 

 it is not interesting, its time seeming to be divided between 

 eating and sleeping. It had a note or two, which could 

 scarcely be called a song. It was exceedingly fond of cherry 

 and small plum-stones ; these it would cleverly open for the 

 sake of the kernels inside, which it greedily devoured. 



George Harding. 



Curious Capture of a Mooshen 

 (G<iUinula chJoropus). 

 On September 27th, 1894, I accompanied a friend on a 

 pike-fishing expedition in the neighbourhood of Puxton, 

 Somerset, Having arrived at the piece of water where we 

 intended to " try our luck," my friend remarked, ^' Just the 

 place to find a moorhen, isn't it?" "Well," I replied, "I 



