q 2 BRITISH BIRDS. 



tipped on their outer edges with white, the five 

 following with stra\v colour, but in some bright 

 yellow; the ' secondaries are tipped with white, 

 each being pointed with a flat horny substance of a 

 bright vermillion. These appendages vary in dif- 

 ferent subjects ; one in our possession had eight on 

 one wing and six on the other. The legs are short 

 and black. The female has only four or five of v 

 the second quills tipt with the red cartilaginous 

 appendages, and the young birds previous to their 

 first moult are without them altogether. 



This rare bird visits our island only at uncertain 

 intervals. In the years 1790, 1791, and 1803, 

 several were taken in Northumberland and Dur- 

 ham, in the month of November, and many have 

 appeared in different years since that time. Their 

 summer residence is the northern parts of Europe, 

 within the arctic circle, whence they spread them- 

 selves into other countries, where they remain 

 during winter, and return in the spring to their 

 usual haunts. Their general food is berries and 

 insects : one Avhich we saw in a state of captivity 

 was fed chiefly with hawthorn and ivy berries, but 

 from the difficulty of providing it with these, and 

 perhaps other kinds of its natural food, it soon 

 died. Its breeding place is not well ascertained. 

 Only this species of the Chatterer is recognised as 

 a British bird ; the same may be said of the two 

 genera next in succession. 



