BRAMBLING. 83 
Flycatchers and Warblers, the Chaffinch, in common 
with the House Sparrow and other Finches, often 
captures insects on the wing. We have watched a 
number of birds by the side of a wooded stream pass 
repeatedly from bank to bank in order to snap up 
the insects which were flying above the water. In 
July too, when the oaks are often almost leafless 
owing to the depredations of the green tortrix (Tortria 
viridana, Linnzeus), family parties of Chaffinches fre- 
quent the trees to feed upon the moths, which they 
catch upon the wing. 
BRAMBLING. 
FRINGILLA MONTIFRINGILLA, Linnzeus. 
Flat Finch. 
The Brambling is a winter visitor whose numbers 
vary in relation to the severity of the season. In hard 
winters the bird is fairly plentiful, frequenting beech- 
woods, and in company with other Finches resorting to 
farmyards for food. It is often shot on account of its 
attractive plumage; and the cases of stuffed birds, so 
common in cottages and farmhouses, nearly always 
contain one or two specimens. 
During October the Brambling arrives in large 
numbers on the north-east coast of England, but it 
is seldom met with in Cheshire before January. In 
1883, however, Mr. R. Newstead, senior, saw Bramblings 
at Ince early in the autumn.’ Throughout the month 
of November, in 1898, we observed numbers of these 
birds consorting with Chaffinches, at Alderley Edge 
and Capesthorne; but although we often searched, we 
1 Dobie, op. cit. p. 298. 
