THE BRAMBLING. 97 



Family FRINGILLIDsE. Subfamily FRINGILLINsE. 



THE BRAMBLING. 



Fringilla montifringilla, LINN. 



OF the distribiition of this species Howard Saunders says : " To the Faeroes 

 the Brambling is only an exceptional visitor. On the mainland it breeds 

 throughout the sub-Arctic pine and birch forests, from Norway to the valley of 

 the Amur : while on migration it occurs in Japan, China, Northern India, Asia 

 Minor, and the whole of Europe ; but it is only in very severe winters that it 

 pushes its wanderings to the African side of the Mediterranean. Immense flocks 

 sometimes visit Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Heligoland ; but statements that 

 this species has nested in the Pyrenees, the Alps, or the Ardennes, are as yet 

 unconfirmed." (Manual of British Birds, p. 177). 



To Great Britain the Brambling is chiefly a winter migrant, although there 

 is reason for believing that a few pairs have occasionally remained to breed with 

 us. Although pretty generally distributed throughout our islands in winter, it 

 appears to be rather more numerous in Scotland than in England, whilst in 

 Cornwall, the west of England, and the south of Ireland, it is rarer than else- 

 where; and in very severe winters it is more abundant, but particularly near 

 beech-woods. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the upper parts blue-black, some of 

 the feathers with tawny margins, the middle of the lower back and rump white ; 

 scapulars and lesser wing-coverts bright tawny ; median coverts white ; greater 

 coverts black, tipped with white, so as to form a prominent bar ; quills smoky 

 black ; the primaries with narrow yellowish white margins, the inner ones with 

 white bases ; secondaries with white margins towards their extremities ; upper 

 tail-coverts black, with ashy tips ; tail black, the outer feathers with a little white 

 at the base of the inner web, and about half the outer web broadly white ; sides 

 of head black ; throat and breast reddish tawny ; belly white, the flanks spotted 

 with black, and the thighs black behind ; under tail-coverts white, tawny on the 

 vent : beak blue-black ; feet reddish-brown ; iris hazel. After the autumn moult 

 the feathers of the head and back have broad tawny margins, as also have the 

 tips of the greater wing-coverts and the innermost secondaries ; the quills and 



VOL. II. R 



