Pine Grosbeak and Bohemian Chatterer, 469 



the winter there, took their departure in March. In the first of 

 those years they were scattered over a considerable part of Europe, 

 and early in January were seen near Edinburgh. Savi observes 

 that they are not seen in Tuscany except in very severe winters, 

 and that the years 1806 and 1807 were remarkable for the num- 

 ber of them which entered Piedmont, especially the valleys of 

 Lanzo and Suza. 



It has been said that it is always rare in France, and that of 

 late years it has become scarce in Italy and Germany ; but Bech- 

 stein observes that in moderate seasons it is found in great flights 

 in the skirts of the forests throughout the greater part of Germany 

 and Bohemia, and that it is to be seen in Thuringia only in the 

 winter : if the season be mild in very small numbers, the greater 

 portion remaining in the north ; if the weather be severe, it ad- 

 vances fiirther south. 



The Bolieraian Chatterer must be considered only as an occa- 

 sional visitant to the British Islands, though Pennant says that 

 they appear only by accident in South Britain, but that about 

 Edinburgh they come annually in February, and feed on the ber- 

 ries of the mountain ash ; adding that they also appear as far south 

 as Northumberland, and like the fieldfare make the berries of the 

 white thorn their food ; he recor.is the death of one which was 

 killed at Garthraeilio in Denbighshire in a fir-tree during the se- 

 vere frost of December, 1788. Latham, in a note to this state- 

 ment, says that the late Mr. Tunstall informed him that in the 

 winter of 1787 many flocks were seen all over the county of York, 

 and that towards the spring a flock of between twenty and thirty 

 were observed within two miles of Wycliff'e, his place of residence. 

 Bewick states that in the years 1790, 1791, and 1803 several of 

 them were taken in Northumberland and Durham as early as the 

 month of November. Selby says that in the winter of 1810 large 

 flocks were dispersed through various parts of the kingdom, and 

 that from that period it does not seem to have visited our island 

 till the month of February, 1822, when a few came under his 

 inspection, and several were again observed during the severe 

 storm in the winter of 1823. Montagu says that he received it 

 out of Staff"ordshire, and that he has known others killed in the 

 more southern counties in the autumn and winter. In Mr. Ren- 

 nie's edition of the ' Ornithological Dictionary' (1833) it appears 

 that one had been shot in the park of Lord Boringdon at Saltrara 

 in Devonshire, and that not less than twenty had been killed in the 

 counties of Suffolk and Norfolk during the last three winters. 



