198 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paet i 



finch figures too in British lists of prey for the tawny {Strix aluco) 

 and long-eared {Asio otus) owls. 



Bramblings' nests are often robbed of their eggs, the culprit most 

 frequently being a hooded crow {Corvus comix) or, in the north, a 

 Siberian jay {Perisoreus injaustus). E. S. Steward remembered 

 being roused early one morning by an uproar aroimd his lodgings in 

 Lapland. A number of brambUngs had incomplete clutches close 

 to the house, and it was their alarm notes, mingled with the louder 

 voices of a pair of raiding Siberian jays, that had awakened him. Upon 

 investigation, he discovered four bramblings' nests despoiled of their 

 contents — undoubtedly by the jays. 



In Finno-Scandia the brambling is one of the commoner dupes of 

 the cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), and in most cases the parasitic egg 

 closely resembles that of the host. The first authentic instance of 

 this assimilation was detected by Prof. Alfred Newton and recorded 

 by him in "Ootheca Wolleyana." Here, curiously enough, it was the 

 dissimilarity between the cuckoo's egg and the brambling clutch which 

 attracted notice, the former presenting what Newton described as 

 "the average brambling colouration," while the latter were fine 

 examples of the somewhat rare blue type. These interesting speci- 

 mens were taken by a native collector trained by John Wolley, who 

 had died only a few months previously. Wolley himself had earlier 

 received several eggs which he cataloged as abnormal bramblings', 

 but which may have been Cuckoos'. 



Distribution 



Range. — Scotland, Scandinavia, and the Soviet Union to the 

 Mediterranean, China, and Japan. 



Breeding range. — The brambling breeds from tree limits in Eurasia 

 east to the upper Anadyr Valley and south to northern Scotland 

 (Sutherland), the Baltic, central Russia (Novgorod, Kazan, Ufa), 

 southern Siberia (southern Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, southern 

 Yakutsk, Udskaya Bay), and Kamchatka. 



Winter range. — Winters from Scotland and southern Scandinavia 

 south to central Portugal, the Mediterranean, Syria, Iran, Baluchistan, 

 northern West Pakistan, Tibet, southern China, and southern Japan. 



Casual records. — Casual to Iceland, Madeira, and the Philippines 

 (Calayan). 



Accidental in fall in Alaska (St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs and 

 Amchitka Island in the Aleutians) . Recorded (possibly escaped cage 

 birds) in New Jersey (Stanton) and Massachusetts (Hadley, Rich- 

 mond). 



