BIRDS 



from a little distance, no attempt having been 

 made by the bird to approximate the colour 

 of the nest to its surroundings. 



60. Brambling. Fringilla montifringilla, Linn. 

 This is an uncertain visitor, appearing in 



winter, and mixing with flights of finches and 

 linnets, but not with sparrows. It is notice- 

 able from the white patch over the tail, which 

 is very conspicuous when the bird is flying 

 away from the observer. An unusual number 

 visited the valley of the Avon in the winter of 

 1 899-1 900, and a considerable flight appeared 

 in February of the latter year in company with 

 linnets, and fed on seeds which had been 

 thrown out from the great tithe barn built by 

 the Abbots of Evesham at Middle Littleton. 

 Nearly twenty were shot by an inhabitant of 

 the village, which being subjected to exami- 

 nation were observed to be males and females 

 in about equal proportion. Although the 

 males had generally the usual rufous breast 

 and throat, three of them had more or less 

 dark-coloured throats. That peculiarity is 

 worthy of particular mention, as it is not 

 mentioned by Yarrell, Macgillivray, Howard 

 Saunders nor Temminck, though Degland says 

 that the upper part of the neck (presumably 

 all round) is dark in colour in summer. From 

 the circumstance of some of the dark throats 

 being more or less mottled by light rufous 

 feathers, it seems probable that the dark colour 

 is a seasonal as well as a sexual peculiarity. 

 Mr. Aplin, in his work on the birds of Ox- 

 fordshire, speaks of the occasional dark-coloured 

 throats in this bird as a variety only, and he 

 further says that part is sometimes white in- 

 stead of black. 



61. Linnet. Linota cannabina (Linn.). 

 There is no diminution in the numbers of 



the present species, all that is necessary for a 

 full show of linnets being a weedy stubble 

 after harvest, where a good quantity of char- 

 lock seed has been scattered. The favourite 

 place for the nest is a brake of furze, but any 

 close bush will do, and when there is no such 

 accommodation in a state of nature, a cropped 

 hawthorn hedge is chosen and freely used. 



62. Lesser Redpoll. Linota rufescens (Vieillot). 

 The lesser redpoll is a winter visitor, and 



frequents the sides of streams, especially if 

 there are alder trees and bushes, on the seeds 

 of which it feeds, and sometimes on the seeds 

 of the willow herb. Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 in his Manual of British Birds, speaks of this 

 bird as occasionally breeding in Worcester- 

 shire, but I have never been fortunate enough 

 to find a nest in the county, though I have 



seen one at Alcester, Warwickshire, which is 

 but a little way from the boundary. 



63. Twite. Linota flavirostris (Linn.). 

 The twite is a rare straggler with us, and 



only seen in severe weather, when its mono- 

 tonous note declares its presence. 



64. Bullfinch. Pyrrhula europaa, Vieillot. 

 In those parts of the county where there 



is much market gardening the bullfinch is 

 not a favourite, and certainly the fruit- 

 growers have no great reason to like him. 

 Whatever may be said in his favour, the 

 damage he does to fruit trees and gooseberry 

 bushes is too serious to be overlooked. Com- 

 mencing on a branch of a gooseberry bush, 

 the bullfinch will climb along it and consume 

 every bud, leaving the ground beneath littered 

 with the chaff made in getting at the inner 

 part, which is eaten. The seed of the ash is 

 also consumed by this bird. Unlike the gold- 

 finch, which picks out the germ only, the 

 bullfinch feeds on the whole of the seed, com- 

 mencing at one end and biting bits off until all 

 is eaten. 



[Pine-Grosbeak. Pyrrhula enucleator (Linn.). 



I include this bird in the list of Worcester- 

 shire birds on the authority of Hastings. Its 

 occurrence is most doubtful.] 



65. Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra, Linn. 

 The crossbill is one of the birds reported 



by Hastings as of infrequent occurrence in 

 Worcestershire sixty years ago ; but Lees, 

 writing in 1870, says that it is now seen 

 occasionally, but formerly it would seem that 

 its visits were more frequent, as in an old 

 History of Birds published in the last century 

 it is said that crossbills visit the orchards of 

 Worcestershire and Herefordshire in great 

 numbers, destroying the apples for the sake 

 of their enclosed kernels.' He also quotes 

 Mr. Edwards as an authority for stating that 

 crossbills were abundant in the neighbourhood 

 of Malvern in 1869. Subsequently however 

 Mr. Edwards has made the statement that this 

 bird ' frequents the Hill every year near the 

 Wells.' This is most likely due to the con- 

 fusion between this bird and the hawfinch. A 

 local name of the hawfinch is ' grossbeak,' and 

 this is confused with ' crossbeak.' Certainly 

 is not an annual visitor. 



In the very early spring of 1870 (the spring 

 following the winter when so many were seen 

 at Malvern), a flight alighted on a spruce fir 

 on the lawn at the Vicarage, South Littleton, 

 and two were shot. Shortly afterwards several 

 appeared in an ancient oriental Cyprus on the 

 lawn of the house in which the writer now 



t53 



