BULLFINCHES. 43 



A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks 

 in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they 

 were able to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the 

 regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have pre- 

 served such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself 

 nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that 

 their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milk-white. 



A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a down 

 above my house this winter : were not these the emberiza nivalis, 

 the snow-flake of the Brit. Zool. ? No doubt they were.* 



A few years ago I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had 

 been caught in the fields after it was come to its full colours. 

 In about a year it began to look dingy ; and, blackening every 

 succeeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its 



(mustela foina) , now extremely rare in the south-eastern counties, and the yellow-breasted marten 

 (mustela martes), which is chiefly found in Wales and Scotland, being everywhere an inhabitant 

 of wilder and more elevated districts than the other. ED. 



* Snow-flecks (plectrophanes nivalis of modern naturalists) are but very rarely observed south of 

 the metropolis, even in severe winters. They are visitants from the extreme north, lively and 

 interesting birds, allied to the buntings, being modifications of that form, approximating in 

 several particulars toward the larks, that can either run like the one or hop like the other, but 

 which in general use the former mode of progression, having the hind claw lengthened as in the 

 lark genus, though not (in the common and typical species) to such an extent. The wing is 

 differently formed from either, being more pointed, and not exhibiting any elongation of tht 

 tertiary feathers, as is more or less the case with all the members of both those genera. In the 

 countries where they breed, they are said to sing upon the wing like larks, though I should sus- 

 pect, from the diverse shape of the organs of flight, not exactly in the same^ manner. Here they 

 are very gregarious, frequenting the open country, and are never seen to perch at least upon 

 trees, which however they do with perfect facility in confinement. They are restless, seldom 

 remaining long in one situation, fly rather swiftly, and like starlings in a compact body, and 

 " frequently before settling on the ground," as is well remarked by Mr. Selby, " they make 

 sudden wheels, coming almost in collision with each other, at which time a peculiar guttural 

 note is produced." Their call-note is pleasing (a sort of chee-urt), and is often repeated during 

 their flight. They are hardy and healthy birds in captivity, but do not moult well, and in the 

 cage are always remarkably uneasy and restless during the night, at which time their peculiar 

 shrill call-note is often uttered. "Their song," as Bechsteen correctly observes, "would be 

 rather agreeable, were it not interrupted in a peculiar manner : it is a warbling mingled with 

 some high noisy notes, descending slowly from shrill to deep, and a little strong and broken 

 whistling." They are fond of bathing, or rather of sprinkling themselves with water, but their 

 plumage being very close and thick, adapted to a cold climate, does not readily become wet. 



