The Zoologist — October, 1874. 4177 



" Snow buntings upon the wing keep up a constant chirping, and 

 occasionally a sudden jarring sound may be heard; and as this is usually 

 followed by an immediate deviation of the flock from its course, it has been 

 thought by some observers to be nothing less than a word of command ; but 

 I have been able to account for it almost completely to my satisfaction. On 

 watching with a Httle patience, any person may observe that simultaneously 

 ■with the utterance of the peculiar sound, one bird makes a rapid dart 

 towards a near neighbour, and the two in their excitement forgetting to 

 direct their course aright depart from the common track, thus leading the 

 whole flock astray ; for birds upon the wing are always ready to imitate any 

 sudden movement upon the part of an object near them, whether it be a 

 stone thrown among them or one of their number falling to the ground. 

 That the note in question is sometimes at least one of anger I have 

 repeatedly observed when two of the birds have been quarrelling over their 

 food ; but it must also have some other meaning, for it is uttered in chorus 

 by the whole flock during the performance of those rapid wheels close to the 

 surface, which I have attempted to describe above. Seen against a dark 

 hill-side or a lowering sky, a flock of these birds presents an exceedingly 

 beautiful appearance, and it may then be seen how aptly the term ' snow- 

 flake' has been applied to the species. I am acquainted with no more 

 pleasing combination of sight and sound than that afforded when a cloud of 

 these birds, backed by a dark gray sky, descends as it were in a shower to 

 the ground to the music of their own sweet tinkling notes." — P. 91. 



The brambling, like many other species, has become more 

 abundant of late years, in consequence of the numerous, and in 

 many instances successful, attempts to plant these infertile regions 

 with trees. The chaflBnch was formerly a rare winter visitant, but 

 is now plentiful wherever there are gardens to attract it,; they 

 arrive in considerable flocks in September, October, and the 

 beginning of November, and usually with an easterly wind : the 

 males greatly preponderate in number, and in May, June and Jul}', 

 males only are seen. Both species are regular migrants, and the 

 brambling is particularly distinguished on its arrival by a faded and 

 dingy appearance. Dr. Saxby has caught and caged brarablings, 

 but they seldom lived more than a ie'spr days, so incessant and violent 

 were their attempts to escape, and so pertinaciously they refused 

 every kind of food that was offered them. It is different here in 

 London ; they are among the most quiet as well as most greedy of 

 cage-birds, eating with voracity herap-seed, canary, oats, bread, 

 bread-and-railk sop, plaintain, chickweed, groundsel, spiders, ants' 

 eggs, indeed almost every kind of food that I can procure : they 



