392 AMPELID&. 
twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in the 
morning, and were too shy to allow me to approach within 
gunshot.” 
Such are the accounts and opinions of observers and natu- 
ralists who have written most recently on this bird. Of its 
habits in this country, it may be briefly stated that it has 
once appeared as early in the season as August. In that 
month of the year 1835, a male was killed out of a flock by _ 
my friend J oseph Clarke, Esq., at Saffron Walden in 
Essex. Mr. Frederick Fuller, of Aldborough, on the 
Suffolk coast, who has also seen these birds alive, and pro- 
cured specimens for his collection with his own gun, tells 
me that he found them very shy and difficult to approach, 
alighting from time to time, and when seen on other occa- 
sions were perched, upon the uppermost twigs of tall 
hedges, very much in the manner of our Red-backed 
Shrike; but in their activity and incessant change of 
position or place, they resemble the Tits. In this country 
these birds are known to feed on the berries of the 
mountain ash, hawthorn, and ivy, and have been thus 
fed in captivity, but seldom live long. When fruit or 
berries are scarce, they are said to feed upon insects, 
catching them dexterously in the same manner as their 
distant relatives the Flycatchers. Their call-note is a 
chirp frequently repeated. 
For the opportunity of figuring from a British killed 
example of this bird, I am indebted to the kindness of my 
friend Thomas Wortham, Hsq., of Royston, who obtained 
for my use, of his neighbour Mr. Trudgett, the loan of a 
fine male specimen, which was shot near Royston a few 
winters since. 
The beak is almost black, but light brown on the edges 
near the base ; the irides dark red; the forehead reddish 
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