384 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



it not far from Tunkinsk ; and on the 14th July 1855 I met with a family of them 

 a few versts above the village of Kotchirikowa, the young birds of which were 

 fledged. The male then killed was in moult, the crown being almost featherless. 

 Only a few visit the high steppes of Dauria in spring ; thus, for instance, a male 

 was shot in the hedge of the kitchen garden at Kulssutayefsk ; on the other 

 hand they were numerous during the autumn migration at the Tarei-Nor. On 

 the 15th of August I saw only a few males, on the 16th only a female; and 

 on the 26th large flocks, consisting of young birds of both sexes, arrived. On 

 the 30th they increased in numbers and frequented the neighbourhood of the 

 kitchen garden. Later, when the night frosts set in, they took refuge at night in 



the, high reeds which grow round the 

 ponds. Here they remained till the 

 llth of September; but then the large 

 flocks were wanting, and I only saw 

 stragglers up to the 15th of September." 

 Usually the brambling lays a larger 

 number of eggs than any other of the 

 finches, seldom less than six and more 

 generally seven ; and when compelled to 

 leave its nest to seek food, or for any 

 other purpose, the bird is in the habit 

 of covering its eggs, which are laid late 

 in May or early in June. According to 

 Mr. Collett the brambling generally 

 builds in a birch or spruce close to the 

 main stem, arid about six or seven yards 

 from the ground. The nest is con- 

 structed like that of the chaffinch, but generally more of moss. The eggs 

 closely resemble those of the chaffinch ; but in the latter the general colour 

 is greyish brown, not greyish blue, and the spots are smaller. Gould states that all 

 the nests which he observed were composed of green mosses and fine, dried grass, 

 interwoven with cobwebs and externally decorated with flat pieces of white lichen 

 and thin threads of birch bark. They were lined with fine wool and some feathers 

 of the white grouse ; but we have seen quite a variety of feathers in the nests of 

 these birds, including those of the nutcracker. During the autumn considerable 

 numbers of bramblings cross the North Sea to winter in the British Isles ; their 

 arrival being usually heralded by the reiteration of their harsh call-note. They 

 frequent stubble-fields and farm-yards in common with chaffinches, greenfinches, 

 and sparrows, but prefer to subsist upon beech-mast. The adult male in breeding- 

 plumage has the general colour above blue-black, with generally a few sandy 

 margins to the feathers ; the lower back and rump being white, the wing-coverts 

 orange-rufous, tipped with white ; the wing-quills black, the primaries being edged 

 with pale yellow, and the inner ones white at the base forming a speculum, the 

 tail-feathers are black, with the outer pair broadly white for more than half the 

 outer web; the crown and sides of the face are black; the throat and breast 

 pale orange-rufous, and the flanks spotted with black. 



BRAMBLING. 



