80 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



about equal 9th primary. Tail fairly forked. Bill much like 

 Bullfinch's but rather finer. Minute bristle-like feathers covering 

 nostrils and at gape. 



Soft parts. — Bill brown, slightly paler base lower mandible ; 

 legs and feet dusky-brown ; iris dark brown. 



Characters and allied forms. — C. e. roseatus (Himalayas) is 

 exceedingly brilliant, C. e. grebnitskii (east Siberia) rather more 

 rosy, less carmine throat, but doubtfully distinct from typical 

 form. Bullfinch-like bill and brilliant carmine throat, crown, 

 and rump of adult male, streaked throat and whitish double 

 wing-bar of young and female are specific characters. 



Field-characters. — Female and yoimg males are somewhat like 

 Com-Bimtings in general coloration but are much more slim. 

 Double whitish wing-bar and streaked tliroat and breast are 

 distinctive (H.F.W.). 



Breeding-habits. — Breeds generally in swampy woods near rivers, 

 placing its flimsy nest in thick imdergrowth. Nest. — More like 

 Warbler's than Finch's, built of dead stalks and grasses, lined 

 roots and sometimes few hairs. Eggs. — Usually 5, sometimes 

 4 or 6 ; very distinctive, being very deep and vivid blue in groimd- 

 colour with few bold spots and streaks of deep chocolate-black and 

 generally few ashy shell-marks at big end. Average of 86 eggs 

 20.05 X 14.29 mm. Breeding-season. — Begms early June in east 

 Prussia, but eggs may be found up to July. In mid-Russia from 

 end May. Incubation-period. — Not precisely known; apparently 

 performed by hen only. Probably only one brood normally reared. 



Food. — ^Entirely vegetable-matter (though young also eat insects 

 and larvae), seeds of reeds, trees, and bushes, as well as buds. 



Distribution. — England and Wales. Five obtained, several seen. 

 Female near Brighton (Sussex) Sept., 1869. Female Hampstead 

 (Middlesex) Oct. 5, 1870. Female near Yarmouth (Norfolk) 

 Sept. 3, 1892 (Saimders, pp. 197, 199, 756). Male near Painscastle 

 (Radnor) about 1875 (Zool, 1904, p. 228). Female Holy Island 

 (Northumberland) Aug. 30, and another seen Sept. 15, 1913. One 

 seen Oxon. Jan. 31, 1912, and another Hants. Aug. 13, 1913 

 (c/. Brit. B., VI, p. 283 ; vn, pp. 168-179). Scotland.— Irregnlar 

 autumn-visitor of recent years (very few adult males), unrecorded 

 previous to 1906. Fair Isle (Shetlands) one Oct. 3, 1906, one 

 Sept. 4, one Sept. 29, and probably another autunm, 1908, one 

 Sept. 20, one Sept. 28, 1912, several Aug. 29 to Sept. 18, 1913. 

 Isle of May, one Sept. 25, 1907, one Sept. 12, 1908, one Sept. 13, 

 1909, one Sept. 7, 1910, one Sept. 20 and 21, 1913. St. Kilda (O. 

 Hebrides), two Sept. 8, one Sept. 19, 1910. Tarbatness (Ross- 

 shire), one Sept. 8, 1912. Auskerry (Orkneys), nine Aug. 31 to 

 Sept. 30, 1913. 



