B R AN C H I F E R A B R A N C H I O P O D A. 



their outer webs bordered with rufous, and the quill- 

 feafhers being slightly edged with primrose yellow, 

 and having- a white spot at the base ; underneath the 

 wing are some bright yellow feathers. The rest of 

 the under parts white, tinged with rufous on the under 

 tail-coverts and flanks, which latter are spotted with 

 black. Tail black, edged with grey, the exterior web 

 of the outer feather partly white. Legs and toes 

 brown. 



The female resembles the male in markings, but 

 her colours are far from being as bright. The upper 

 parts are of a blackish brown, margined in the winter 

 with yellowish brown, and over each eye is a streak 

 of black, which is continued down the bark of the 

 neck. Throat and breast yellowish orange. The 

 young are similar to the adult female, but have the 

 throat whitish. 



This fine species is a native of the northern parts 

 of Europe, and in the more temperate and southern 

 districts is only known as a winter visitant, arriving 

 in the neighbourhood of London generally about 

 Michaelmas, and departing northward early in the 

 month of March never having, as yet, been satisfac- 

 torily ascertained to breed here. Their numbers 

 vary greatly in different seasons, the direction and 

 extent of their migration being, in ull probability, 

 regulated by the state of the weather. 



In habit, and in their manners, they closely re- 

 semble the common chaffinch, with which they fre- 

 quently associate, and in hard weather may sometimes 

 be seen hopping familiarly about the farm-yard, or in 

 the middle of the road, in the manner of that bird. 

 They are found much about beech trees, and in 

 plantations of larch and fir, where they may be readily 

 distinguished from the chaffinch by the difference of 

 their notes, the most frequent of which is a kind of 

 chut, analogous to the timnk of the chaffinch, and 

 sometimes a harsh jay-like call to their companions. 

 They are never heard to sing during the period of 

 their stay in this country ; but in confinement, in the 

 spring and summer, they often utter a few coarse, 

 unmusical notes, which appear to be all the melody 

 they are capable of, and which do not in the least 

 resemble the notes of the common chaffinch, nor those 

 of any other bird with which we are acquainted. 



The chaffinches, a group of which the present 

 forms one of the most characteristic species, consti- 

 tute a small but tolerably well-marked division, the 

 members of which possess in common several little 

 peculiarities at variance with the generality of finches. 

 They subsist much on insect food, which (with the 

 exception sometimes of a fesv aphides) the goldfinches, 

 linnets, grosbeaks, and others, never touch, and, like 

 the sparrow genus (passer), their young are wholly fed 

 upon insects. The crop, or enlargement of the gullet, 

 is very much smaller than in any of the other finches 

 we have examined, and the muscular stomach, or 

 gizzard, proportionably larger. They usually move 

 forward on the ground by hopping, but when feeding, 

 mostly by alternate steps ; are in their habits familiar, 

 much resorting to farm-houses, and other human 

 habitations, and, like the other various finches, are in 

 the winter more or less gregarious. 



The mountain chaffinch is described to pass the 

 summer in mount-iinous and wild districts, and to 

 breed in the extensive forests of pine and fir which 

 abound in high latitudes, constructing its nest of wool 

 and moss, and lining it with feathers and hair, and is 

 said to lay four or five white eggs, spotted with 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



yellowish brown. It is, in confinement, tolerably 

 familiar, if taken young, that is, during the winter of 

 the first year ; but the older birds remain extremely 

 wild and untameable. In Russia it is very common, 

 and the barbarous peasantry of that country are 

 much in the habit of catching them for the purpose 

 of making them fight with each other, or with other 

 small birds, or mice, often risking greater sums on 

 the issue of such a contest than their slender means 

 can well afford. We were told this by a person long 

 resident in St. Petersburgh, who also informed us of 

 the mode of provoking them to fight : this, of course, 

 we need not here repeat, but may remark, that the 

 species is not naturally irascible ; in the aviary we 

 have always found them to live in perfect harmony 

 with their various companions. 



BRANCHIFERA. The second family of the 

 second class Siphonobranchiata, of De Blainville's 

 System of Malacology. This mollusc has its organs 

 of respiration formed by two large and uniform comb- 

 like branchiae. The family includes the genera 

 FissureUa, Emarginula, and Parmoj)hora, all of which 

 were blended by Linnaeus in his genus Patella, from 

 which they are quite distinct, except in general habits 

 and some external resemblance. 



BRANCHIOPODA (Latreille). An order of the 

 class Crustacea, and subclass Entomostraca, having 

 for its characters, the mouth composed of an upper 

 lip, two mandibles, a tongue, one or two pairs of 

 maxilhe and branchias always placed anteriorly. 

 These Crustacea are always wandering in their habits, 

 not being parasitic upon other animals, as is the case 

 with the order P<ecylopoda. They are generally 

 covered by a shield-like shell, or a case resembling a 

 bivalve ; they are furnished with two or four antennae; 

 their legs are formed for swimming, varying in num- 

 ber, some having only six, others from twenty to 

 forty-two, whilst some have more than a hundred ; 

 many have but one eye. They formed in the system 

 of Linnaeus the single genus Monoculus, but a more 

 precise study of these animals has proved that they 

 present modifications in their structure much more 

 striking than are to be found in the large Decapod 

 Crustacea. 



This order is divisible into two principal sections, 

 first, the LOPHYROPODA, in which the number of legs 

 never exceeds ten, with cylindric or conical joints ; 

 the branchiae are few in number. Many have but 

 one eye, and the antenna, which are generally four in 

 number, are employed as locomotive organs. Latreille 

 divides this first section into three principal and very 

 natural groups. 1. The Carcinoida have the shell 

 oval or ovoid, not bivalve, the legs are ten in number, 

 and the eggs are borne by the females in two large 

 external sacks on each side of the base of the abdo- 

 men (Cyclops, (Sec.). 2. The Ostmcoda (Latreille; 

 Ostrapoda, Strauss), having a bivalve shell united by 

 a hinge, and closing during repose ; the antenna are 

 simple and setaceous. They have six legs and only 

 one eye, the mandibles and upper maxillae are fur- 

 nished with a branchial plate (Cypris, &c/,. 3. The 

 Cladoccra( Latreille), having also the shell bivalve and 

 a single eye, but without a hinge, and terminating in 

 a point behind, with the head, which is covered by a 

 shield-like plate, exposed ; the antennae are two in 

 number, very large and branched. They have ten 

 legs (Daphnia, &c.). 



The second principal section of the branchiopoda 

 is named PHYLLOPODA, from the legs, which vary in 

 3 A 



