196 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



in the season, Collett alone appears to have been fortunate enough to 

 hear this "true" song. 



FieM marks. — The brambUng can readily be distinguished from 

 alhed birds by its white rump, while at close quarters the dark head, 

 bufhsh breast, and — in the male — orange lesser wing coverts are 

 further aids to identification. In all its actions this is a typical finch, 

 and particularly in its characteristic dipping flight. The bird moves 

 forward with a few swift movements of the wings, and then closes 

 them, losing height as it does so. At the end of the flight, the wings 

 are stiffly extended as the bird glides to its perch. When m company, 

 bramblings fly closely packed, and some writers claim that this for- 

 mation alone will distinguish a distant flock. 



Fall. — In some years, and especially when the spruce and mountain- 

 ash bear heavy crops of seed and fruit, flocks of bramblings are to be 

 encountered throughout the winter in districts well within the species' 

 breeding range. The great majority, however, move southward 

 during the fall. A few occasionally migrate in August, but overseas 

 movements in any force do not normally take place until about the 

 equinox. In western Europe they become most noticeable m October, 

 and continue throughout the following month, and occasionally into 

 December. When the migration is at its height, it is by no means 

 unusual to see hundreds of bramblings in one flock, and still more 

 imposing flights occur now and then. One flock seen in Yorkshire 

 was described as "extending over 280 yards in length"; another, in 

 Scotland, was "a quarter of a mile long and 15 yards broad." A 

 tendency for the sexes to segregate has been reported by a few ob- 

 servers, some flocks in Yorkshire being composed entirely of adult 

 males. 



Brambhngs, like many other birds, sometimes complete an overseas 

 journey under cover of darkness. Large numbers have been identified 

 at lighthouses on calm nights when the beams of the light become 

 most attractive to passing migrants. Given less favorable conditions, 

 it may happen that the birds encounter worsening weather before they 

 make the land, growing very wing-weary and pitching into the first 

 cover they reach after crossing the tide mark. Saxby (1874), the 

 Shetland ornithologist, described how, one stormy October night, 

 he thrust a lantern into a walled enclosure on a barren island, to 

 find the ground "thickly covered — in some places, literally paved — 

 with Bramblings and Chaffinches." 



Gatke (1895), one of the first students of migration, once detected a 

 brambling "drifting on the sea, at least three miles east of Heligoland. 

 On the approach of the boat, the bird rose and at once ascended to a 

 fairly considerable height, after the manner of birds which purpose 

 continuing their journey after resting." 



