THE HOUSE SPABBOW. 247 



Scotch naturalists, SIB W. JAEDINE has met with it in Dumfrie- 

 shire ; and MACGILLIVRAY mentions having observed a flock of 

 the birds in some beech-trees about a mile from Corstorphine, 

 near Edinburgh. The following is MUD IE 's account : " Like 

 the Siskin, the Mountain Finch is irregular both in the times of 

 its appearance and in its numbers. It is, however, much more 

 frequently seen than the Siskin, and resorts to more places of the 

 country. 



" As the Snow Bunting has, in some stages of its plumage, 

 been called the Mountain Finch, that has occasioned a little con- 

 fusion between it and the species under consideration ; but the 

 two are so distinct in all their characters, that one cannot be 

 mistaken for the other. The proper Mountain Finch is some- 

 times called * the Brambling.' 



"It is not quite so large as the Snow Bunting ; but it is a 

 stout-made bird, which would lead one to conclude that, though 

 it may, as is reported, nestle in the pine-trees, it is, in its manner 

 of feeding, more a bird of the open air than of the forest. While 

 in this country, his habits correspond, as it does not resort so 

 much to the trees and copses, and feed on those buds, as the 

 Siskin, but keeps more to the open fields, with the Chaffinches 

 and Yellow Bunting, though, like the Chaffinches, they frequently 

 alight in trees, and consume the various fruits and seeds that are 

 found on these, but rarely the buds, and prefer evergreens for 

 roosting at night." 



In BEWICK'S History of British Birds, it is mentioned, that 

 the Mountain Finch has been seen in the Cumberland Hills as 

 early as the middle of August ; this, however, was quite an ex- 

 ceptional case. MB. SCALES, an agriculturist, of Beecham, in the 

 county of Norfolk, considered them of great service to his land, 

 as they devoured in great abundance the seeds of the knot-grass 

 (Polygonum amculare). " In severe weather," says YABEELL, 

 " large flocks of them are observed to feed upon beech mast ;" 

 and PENNANT, in reference to the number which occasionally fly 

 together, mentions that he once had eighteen sent him from 

 Kent, which were all killed at one shot. According to a notice 

 in Loudons Magazine of Natural History, one of these birds 

 was shot on the 6th of May of that year, in a fir plantation about 

 four miles east of York. But it does not appear that any col- 

 lector has been able to procure the eggs of this species, nor that 

 they can be induced to oreed in a state of confinement here. 



105. THE HOUSE SPABBOW. 



Fringilla Domestica, LIN. La Moineau Franc, BUF. Der Ham 

 Sperling, BECH. 



Description. Although this and the following species can- 



