392 AMPELID^E. 



twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in the 

 morning, and were too shy to allow me to approach within 

 gunshot." 



Such are the accounts and opinions of observers and natu- 

 ralists who have written most recently on this bird. Of its 

 habits in this country, it may be briefly stated that it has 

 once appeared as early in the season as August. In that 

 month of the year 1 835, a male was killed out of a flock by 

 my friend Joseph Clarke, Esq., at Saffron Walden in 

 Essex. Mr. Frederick Fuller, of Aldborough, on the 

 Suffolk coast, who has also seen these birds alive, and pro- 

 cured specimens for his collection with his own gun, tells 

 me that he found them very shy and difficult to approach, 

 alighting from time to time, and when seen on other occa- 

 sions were perched, upon the uppermost twigs of tall 

 hedges, very much in the manner of our Red-backed 

 Shrike; but in their activity and incessant change of 

 position or place, they resemble the Tits. In this country 

 these birds are known to feed on the berries of the 

 mountain ash, hawthorn, and ivy, and have been thus 

 fed in captivity, but seldom live long. When fruit or 

 berries are scarce, they are said to feed upon insects, 

 catching them dexterously in the same manner as their 

 distant relatives the Flycatchers. Their call-note is a 

 chirp .frequently repeated. 



For the opportunity of figuring from a British killed 

 example of this bird, I am indebted to the kindness of my 

 friend Thomas Wortham, Esq., of Royston, who obtained 

 for my use, of his neighbour Mr. Trudgett, the loan of a 

 fine male specimen, w r hich was shot near Royston a few 

 winters since. 



The beak is almost black, but light brown on the edges 

 near the base ; the irides dark red ; the forehead reddish 



