PINE GROSBEAK. 9 



saw them flying above tlie great forests of Invercauld, in 

 Aberdeenshire ; and he imagined that they had bred there, 

 because he saw them as early as the 5th of August. Mr. 

 Selby observes, " Such a conclusion, however, ought scarcely 

 to be inferred from this fact, as a suflflcient interval of time 

 had elapsed for these individuals to have emigrated from 

 Norway, or other northern countries to Scotland, after incu- 

 bation, as they are known to breed as early as May in their 

 native haunts, I have made many inquiries respecting 

 these birds, during excursions in Scotland, but cannot learn 

 that the nest has ever been found ; and indeed, from the in- 

 telligence obtained from gamekeepers, and those most likely 

 to have made observations connected with ornithology, it 

 appears that they are very rarely seen, and can only be re- 

 garded as occasional visitants." 



Messrs. C. J. and James Paget, in their sketch of the 

 Natural History of Yarmouth, mention at page 6, that a 

 flight of these birds was seen on the Denes in November 

 1822. Mr. Rylands, in his Catalogue of Birds found in Lan- 

 cashire, published in the second volume of the Naturalist, 

 includes the Pine Grosbeak as obtained in Hulston fir trees, 

 on the authority of T. K. Glazebrook, Esq. ; and a female 

 in my own collection was shot some years ago at Harrow on 

 the Hill. 



The Pine Grosbeak, or Pine Bullfinch as it is frequently 

 called, closely resembles the Common Bullfinch in the form 

 of its beak, and in other generic characters ; while it agrees 

 with the Crossbills in many of its habits, as Avell as in tjie 

 general colouring and changes of its plumage. 



The food of this species is seeds and berries ; it frequents 

 pine forests, builds a nest of small sticks, with a lining of 

 feathers, and usually places it on a branch of a tree, a few 

 feet only above the ground. It lays four or five white eggs, 

 about one inch long, by ten lines in breadth : and the young 



