THE BRAMBLING 
vicinity throughout the winter. These flocks make their 
appearance in November, and remain for about four 
months. They particularly affect beech-woods where 
mast is plentiful, and upon which they largely subsist as 
long as the supply continues. I have noticed that Bram- 
blings return each year to certain spots, which may be 
regarded as winter rendezvous, and where they roost, 
spreading over the neighbouring country during the 
daytime to feed. ‘Their favourite roosting-places are 
shrubberies or woods where evergreens are common. 
From these centres flocks frequently visit the stubbles and 
fields that are being manured, for the Brambling seems 
always to prefer an animal diet far more than its ally 
the Chaffinch does at this season. Of course the bird is 
songless during its stay with us, but at its breeding- 
grounds indulges in a low, musical, warbling performance. 
In winter the flocks twitter incessantly as they rest on 
the trees, especially towards nightfall. ‘The food of this 
species consists of grain, mast, insects and larve, and small 
worms, manure-heaps being visited for the latter during 
hard weather. Its nearest breeding-places are in Scan- 
dinavia. ‘The nest is usually made in a fir- or a larch- 
tree, from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, and is 
nothing nearly so neat as that of the Chaffinch. It 1s 
made of moss, lichens, strips of bark, mixed with cobwebs 
and vegetable down, and lined with fine dry grass, down, 
and feathers. ‘The half-dozen eggs closely resemble those 
of the Chaffinch, but are greener in ground colour, and 
the markings are not so prominent, and more washy in 
appearance. After the nesting season the habits of this 
Finch are very similar to those of the Chaffinch. 
The adult male Brambling in summer has the upper 
parts, including the head, blue-black, but the centre of 
the rump is white; the smaller wing-coverts are pale 
chestnut, the median ones white, the greater ones tipped 
with white, which, with the white bases to the inner 
155 
