FRINGILLID^. 107 



In very severe weather it feeds and associates with 

 Sparrows, Chaffinches, and other birds in the farm- 

 yards. Large numbers visit Windsor Forest every 

 winter, and a great many are shot for specimens. 

 I have seen birds of this species which had been 

 shot near Eton, at Chalvey, Eton Wick, Surley, and 

 Datchet. Numbers visit Burnham Beeches annually, 

 and there they find an ample feast of their favourite 

 food. In mild winters they are not so numerous, but 

 I never knew a season in which some did not occur. 

 I have seen them in the beginning of April, although 

 the greater part leave us in March. 



A great number are taken by bird-catchers every 

 season. The birds are observed near Newbury, at 

 Chesham, Hungerford, Maidenhead, and Reading, 

 and I might give a long list of places at which I 

 have received notices of their occurrence. Mr. Gould, 

 in his * Birds of Great Britain,' observes that ^ tens of 

 thousands of Bramblings may now (25th March, 1865) 

 be seen at Stoke, Cliefden, and Dropmore, in Buck- 

 inghamshire ;' and he states that they may be found 

 at Reading any spring, when they throw off their 

 shyness. Mr. F. Collins sends me word that they 

 are seen at Betterton, near Wantage, every year. 

 The following is an extract from a note from my 

 friend Mr. J. E. Harting, the author of the ' Birds of 

 Middlesex :' — 



* With reference to the occurrence of the Brambling 

 {F. montifringilld) in Stoke Park, Bucks, this letter 



