THE BRAMBLING 



vicinity throughout the winter. These flocks make their 

 appearance in November, and remain for about four 

 months. They particularly affect beech- woods where 

 mast is plentiful, and upon which they largely subsist as 

 long as the supply continues. I have noticed that Bram- 

 blings return each year to certain spots, which may be 

 regarded as winter rendezvous, and where they roost, 

 spreading over the neighbouring country during the 

 daytime to feed. Their favourite roosting-places are 

 shrubberies or woods where evergreens are common. 

 From these centres flocks frequently visit the stubbles and 

 fields that are being manured, for the Brambling seems 

 always to prefer an animal diet far more than its ally 

 the Chaffinch does at this season. Of course the bird is 

 songless during its stay with us, but at its breeding- 

 grounds indulges in a low, musical, warbling performance. 

 In winter the flocks twitter incessantly as they rest on 

 the trees, especially towards nightfall. The food of this 

 species consists of grain, mast, insects and larvae, and small 

 worms, manure-heaps being visited for the latter during 

 hard weather. Its nearest breeding-places are in Scan- 

 dinavia. The nest is usually made in a fir- or a larch- 

 tree, from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, and is 

 nothing nearly so neat as that of the Chaffinch. It is 

 made of moss, lichens, strips of bark, mixed with cobwebs 

 and vegetable down, and lined with fine dry grass, down, 

 and feathers. The half-dozen eggs closely resemble those 

 of the Chaffinch, but are greener in ground colour, and 

 the markings are not so prominent, and more washy in 

 appearance. After the nesting season the habits of this 

 Finch are very similar to those of the Chaffinch. 



The adult male Brambling in summer has the upper 

 parts, including the head, blue-black, but the centre of 

 the rump is white ; the smaller wing-coverts are pale 

 chestnut, the median ones white, the greater ones tipped 

 with white, which, with the white bases to the inner 



