MOUNTAIN FINCH. 513 
the North ; but in reference to the time at which it makes 
its appearance, as well as to the numbers of the birds that 
arrive, there is considerable variation in different years, 
both events probably depending on the temperature of the 
country from which they have emigrated. It is mentioned 
in Bewick’s History of British Birds that they have been 
seen on the Cumberland Hills as early as the middle of 
August, but their general appearance is much later. They 
frequent thick hedges, and feed on the grain and seeds to 
be found on stubble land, in company with Yellow Bunt- 
ings, Chaffinches, and others. Mr. Scales, an agriculturist of 
Beecham Well, in the county of Norfolk, used to consider 
them of service to his land from their devouring in great 
abundance the seeds of the knot grass, Polygonum aviculare. 
In severe weather large flocks of these birds are observed to 
feed upon beech mast; and Pennant, in reference to the 
numbers that occasionally fly together, mentions that he once 
had eighteen sent him from Kent, which were all killed at 
one shot. Some of our London bird-catchers take them in 
their nets, and in confinement they are bold and hardy. 
They are not known to breed in any part of this country, 
though it seems probable that now and then a pair of these 
birds may remain through the summer. In Mr. Loudon’s 
Magazine of Natural History for 1835, there is a notice of 
one bird that was shot on the 6th of May of that year in a 
fir plantation about four miles east of York. Several 
specimens have lived and exhibited their perfect summer 
plumage in the aviary devoted to British Birds in. the 
gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, but 
they did not breed. 
The Brambling is pretty generally distributed over Kng- 
land in winter, even as far as the extreme southern counties 
of Dorsetshire and Devonshire. Mr. Couch includes. it 
VOL. f. LL 
