280 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



The Brambling* or Mountain Finch [Fringilla mon- 

 tifringilla) comes in winter, not only to our island, 

 but is spread generally all over the European 

 continent, leaving the wild mountainous region, 

 which is its place of song, till the snows shall have 

 melted from hill, and plain, and bough, being more 

 numerous here in the severe than in the milder 

 winters. This species is not, however, at any 

 time very abimdant in our larch plantations, but 

 in beech woods, in some other countries, it comes in 

 great abundance. Bcchstcin says that these birds 

 assemble in the beech forests of Thuringia,,in im- 

 mense numbers, coming from tlie north in parties 

 consisting of 100,000 individuals. It is generally in 

 captivity a bold and hardy bird. ]\Ir. Blyth remarks 

 — " Were I to judge of tlie temper and disposition 

 of the bramble finch from one which I kept in 

 confinement last summer, I should call it one of 

 the most untameable of birds ; but were I to form 



* The Brambling is six inches and three quarters in length. 

 Head and back rich black (in winter freckled with brown); wing- 

 coverts fawn colour with two black bands ; quills black, with 

 tawny edges ; rump white, varied with black ; tail black with 

 pale edges ; throat, breast, and sides rich fawn colour ; lower 

 parts white; interior surf;\ce of the wing yellow at the shoulder; 

 beak blue in summer, yellowish in winter ; feet light brown. 



