FEINGILLID^E. 177 



a sort of lead-grey, edged with green, and the exte- 

 rior feather on each side, which is white, with a 

 narrow streak of dusky at the hase, and the tip of the 

 next feather, which has a patch of white on the inner 

 web; a streak over the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, 

 throat, breast, belly and flanks palish brick- dust-red, 

 palest on the belly ; under tail-coverts nearly white ; 

 legs, toes and claws brown. The female is much 

 less varied in colour: the top of the head, nape, 

 back and scapulars are darkish olive -brown ; there 

 is a streak at the back of the eye and side of the 

 neck round the ear-coverts much lighter ; cheeks, 

 ear-coverts, throat, breast, belly and flanks dull hair- 

 brown ; the rest of the colouring is much the same 

 as the male, but not so bright. The young birds in 

 their first autumn resemble the female. 



The eggs are well-known, and hardly require de- 

 scription, except that they vary in colour, the most 

 usual being a sort of greenish grey ground, clouded 

 with rusty brown and spotted with dark reddish 

 brown; others have a pale drab ground and are 

 spotted with the same dark reddish brown; and 

 others again have the ground colour quite plain, 

 without any clouding or spots. 



BRAMBLING, Fringilla montifringilla. The Bram- 

 bling, " Bramble Finch " or " Mountain Finch," as 

 it is sometimes called, is a very much less common 

 bird than the Chaffinch, and in these parts is cer- 

 tainly only a winter visitor. It is not generally 



