no



wish to keep their Alario Finches in health to studiously avoid

giving them millet seed.


The Alario Finch is a native of South Africa, from Cape

Town northwards to Damara Land and eastwards to Port

Elizabeth.



X.—THE BRAMBEING.


Fringilla montifringilla , Finn.


By J. Eewis Bonhote.


This bird is, with the exception of the Chaffinch, the only

species of the genus Fringilla, which visits our shores. It is a

tolerably common winter migrant to Scotland and the greater

part of England, its numbers varying greatly from year to year.

Its summer quarters extend from the south of Norway as far

north as it can find suitable trees or bushes on which to breed,

extending eastwards into Siberia.


The sexes differ in plumage. In summer the head, cheeks,,

nape and back of the male are of a deep steel blue ; the upper

wing-coverts, throat and breast vary in colour from a brown

red to a light buff; greater wing-coverts black with two faint

white lines, tail and quills black ; under parts and rump white, the

flanks being spotted with black. The female resembles the male

but is much duller, and in summer the back and head are

speckled with dark brown. The young resemble the female. In

winter all the feathers have broad buff edgings which are worn

off as spring advances, and the bill, which in summer becomes

black, is yellow with a dark tip.


On two points of its colouration, the Brambling shows

clearly the principals of evolution. When it first began to

separate from the Chaffinch, or a bird similar to the Chaffinch,,

probably rather resembling the female, it was necessary for it to

start some means whereby it might easily recognise itself, in

order to prevent its interbreeding with the parent form. From

this arose the white rump ; or what amounts to the same thing,

possibly a few sports with a white rump were produced, which

recognising each other by this mark bred together and so started

the species.


It became at the same time necessary to do away with the

cross-bars on the wings, which would tend to cause unions with

the parent stock and prevent the formation of the race. Conse¬

quently, these cross-bars wxmld diminish in size and become of

a less conspicuous colour till they were no longer sufficiently

visible to lead to false unions ; then natural selection would



