WINTER 253 



ment, overflowing - with life and exuberant spirits as he 

 flits about, more like a big" butterfly than a bird ; and his 

 little triple trill is as cheery as his actions. It rather 

 resembles the rustle of a partridge's wing, and one turns 

 to see if some have passed behind. The snowflecks arrive 

 on the moors with great regularity about November 

 ist, usually in large flights, and feed on the seeds 

 of grass and rushes. Wherever a single seed-bearing 

 blade rises above the snow, their little footsteps will be 

 found imprinted on its surface. These earlier flights are 

 composed exclusively of immature birds : the adults, in full 

 black and white plumage, are comparatively scarce at all 

 times, though rather more numerous in mid-winter. 



Snow-buntings were noticeably numerous on the fells in 

 November, 1880 — presaging, it may be, the phenomenally 

 severe weather that followed a few weeks later, in January 

 and February 1881. 



The brambling also comes about the same date, but 

 cannot properly be claimed as a bird of the moorland- — 

 hardly even of the "subalpine" region — for, though 

 numerous enough in some winters, it passes right on to 

 agricultural lands far beyond my limits. It is really a 

 lowland species, flocking with chaffinches, yellow-hammers, 

 and the like, about stubbles and deciduous woods. 



The siskin {Carduelis spurns), though irregular in its 

 comings — numerous one winter, and never a bird the 

 next — is more characteristic than the last-named of the 

 lower moorland country, where it frequents in flocks the 

 woods of birch and alder that fringe fell-side and burn. 

 This is a species that is easily overlooked, for neither its 

 appearance nor its winter-note are at all distinctive : but 

 if seen from above, the bright yellow in its plumage 

 (almost canary-like in the wintry sunshine) and sharply 



