360 AMPELID/E. 



month of the year 18S5, a male was killed out of a flock by 

 my friend Joseph Clarke, Esq. at Saffron Walden in Essex. 

 Mr. Frederick Fuller, of Aldborough, on the Suffolk coast, 

 who has also seen these bii-ds alive, and procured specimens 

 for his collection with his own gun, tells me that he found 

 them very shy and difficult to approach, alighting from time 

 to time, and when seen on other occasions were perched, 

 upon the uppermost twigs of tall hedges, very much in the 

 manner of our Red-backed Shrike ; but in their activity 

 and incessant change of position or place, they resembled 

 the Tits. In this country these birds are known to feed on 

 the berries of the mountain ash, hawthorn, and ivy, and have 

 been thus fed in captivity, but seldom live long. When fruit 

 or berries are scarce, they arc said to feed upon insects, 

 catching them dexterously in the same manner as their dis- 

 tant relatives the Flycatchers. Their call-note is a chirp 

 frequently repeated. 



For the opportunity of figuring from a British killed exam- 

 ple of this bird, I am indebted to the kindness of my friend 

 Thomas Wortham, Esq. of Royston, who obtained for my 

 use, of his neighbour Mr. 1'rudgett, the loan of a fine male 

 specimen, which was shot near Royston a few winters since. 



The beak is almost black, but light brown on the edges 

 near the base ; the irides dark red ; the forehead reddish 

 chestnut ; the feathers on the top of the head a light brocoli- 

 brown, and elongated, forming a crest ; over the base of 

 the upper mandible, on the lore, round the eye, and passing 

 backward round the occiput under the back part of the 

 crest, an elongated circle of black ; nape of the neck light 

 brocoli-brown, becoming darker on the back, scapulars, and 

 small wing-coverts ; the coverts of the primaries black, tipped 

 with white ; primaries and secondaries black, with an elon- 

 gated patch of straw yellow at the end of the outer web of 

 all except the three first ; the tertials purple brown, tipped 



