HO SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



the numerical strength of the passing flocks. It 

 does not invariably visit the same localities every 

 year. Sometimes little parties of ten or a dozen 

 make their appearance ; at others considerable 

 flocks attract attention. On this account the same 

 opportunities are not afforded for observing its 

 habits as occur in the case of other Finches, and it 

 is consequently not so well known perhaps as it 

 deserves. 



The handsome appearance which it presents in 

 autumn is sufficiently noticeable; in spring its 

 colours are, if possible, still more striking, since the 

 cock bird then assumes a velvety black head, which 

 contrasts effectively with the other portions of the 

 plumage. 



As regards the irregularity of its appearance, 

 Professor Newton considers that it is in some 

 degree due to the effects of climate in the mother 

 country of the species ; but it is also strongly in- 

 fluenced by the abundance or scarcity of food in the 

 several parts of these islands, and with us there is 

 hardly any season or place that produces a plentiful 

 crop of beech-mast in which Bramblings will not make 

 their appearance in corresponding numbers, though, 



