466 FRINGILLID.E. 



arrive, there is considerable variation in different years, 

 both events probably depending on the temperature of the 

 country from which they have emigrated. It is mentioned 

 in Bewick's History of British Birds that they have been 

 seen on the Cumberland Hills as early as the middle of 

 August, but their general appearance is much later. They 

 frequent thick hedges, and feed on the grain and seeds to be 

 found on stubble land, in company with Yellow Buntings, 

 Chaffinches, and others. Mr. Scales, an agriculturist of 

 Beecham Well, in the county of Norfolk, used to consider 

 them of service to his land from their devouring in great 

 abundance the seeds of the knot grass, Polj/gonum aviculare. 

 In severe weather large flocks of these birds are observed to 

 feed upon beech mast ; and Pennant, in reference to the 

 numbers that occasionally fly together, mentions that he once 

 had eighteen sent him from Kent, which were all killed at 

 one shot. Some of our London bird-catchers take them in 

 their nets, and in confinement they are bold and hardy. 



They are not known to breed in any part of this country, 

 though it seems probable that now and then a pair of these 

 birds may remain through the summer. In Mr. Loudon'^s 

 Magazine of Natural History for 1835, there is a notice 

 of one bird that was shot on the Gth of May of that year 

 in a fir plantation about four miles cast of York ; but I 

 am not aware that any collector has been able to obtain 

 the eggs of this species : several friends have kept pairs of 

 this bird in confinement through the summer, in hopes of 

 breeding from them, but hitherto, I believe, without success. 

 Several specimens have lived and exhibited their perfect sum- 

 mer plumage in the aviary devoted to British Birds in the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, but 

 they did not breed. 



The Brambling is pretty generally distributed over Eng- 

 land in winter, even as far as the extreme southern counties 

 of Dorsetshire and Devonshire. Mr. Couch includes it 



