16 



with orange on the innermost feathers; primary coverts brown, very narrowly edged with yellowish 

 white; quills dark brown, with a white or yellowish-white spot at the extreme base of the feather, 

 forming a bar right across the wing, all the quills also more or less narrowly edged with yellowish 

 white ; tail dark brown, the two centre feathers washed with ashy grey, the last feather marked with 

 white at the base of the outer and the extremity of the inner web ; all the side of the face glossy blue- 

 black like the head ; throat and fore part of the chest pale orange ; rest of the under surface of the 

 body white, with a quantity of little round black spots clustered on the flanks ; under tail-coverts white, 

 with a tinge of buff ; under wing-coverts for the most part white, but the innermost or greater coverts 

 bright lemon-yellow ; inner surface of the wing white ; bill horn-blue ; feet reddish brown ; iris dark 

 brown. Total length 5 - 8 inches, culmen 0'5, wing 3*5, tail 2 - 4, tarsus - 7. 



Obs. Some specimens in breeding-plumage are more richly coloured on the breast than others, and have 

 the scapulars more tinged with orange. An example of the Brambling, in our collection, from Tientsin, 

 in China, differs from our European specimens only in being a little richer- coloured on the breast, and 

 having a rufous tinge on the white of the belly and under tail-coverts ; the edgings to the scapulars and 

 wing-coverts are also much more rufous. This bird measures as follows : — Total length 6"5 inches, 

 culmen - 5, wing 35, tail 2 - 5, tarsus - 7. 



Male in winter plumage. Ground-colour of the upper plumage glossy blue-black, everywhere broadly edged 

 with sandy buff; lower part of the back and rump white, faintly tinged with yellow and slightly varied 

 with black; upper tail-coverts black, broadly edged with ashy grey and tinged with buff; sides of the 

 face black, obscured like the head with sandy margins ; sides of the neck and nape ashy grey, with small 

 markings of black ; scapulars orange-rufous, as also are the least wing-coverts, the latter being tinged 

 with bright lemon-yellow , median coverts white, forming a bar across the wing ; greater coverts black, 

 the outer ones edged with white, the inner ones with orange-rufous like the scapulars ; primary coverts 

 brown, with very narrow edgings of yellowish white ; quills dark brown, with a distinct spot of yellowish 

 white at the base of the feather, forming a distinct bar across the wing ; all the primaries very distinctly 

 margined with yellowish, the secondaries with orange-rufous ; tail coloured as in the summer dress, but 

 all the feathers more or less distinctly edged with yellowish ; fore part of the chest, extending down on 

 to the flanks, clear orange-rufous, the latter slightly spotted with black ; under surface of the body dull 

 white, the under tail-coverts tinged with orange-rufous; under wing-coverts white, the inner ones 

 bright lemon-yellow ; bill bright yellow, black at the point ; legs pale brown. 



Obs. We have given a full description of the bird in its winter dress, as it is in this plumage that the bird 

 generally occurs in this country. Before they leave in spring many of the males have begun to assume 

 their summer plumage, which is obtained by the wearing away of the sandy margins to the feathers. 



Female. Differs from the male in being more obscurely coloured, but especially in the absence of the black 

 head, the cheeks being greyish brown. 



The Brambling is spread over the whole of the Palsearctic region, and may, indeed, be considered 

 one of its most characteristic birds. It breeds in the high north, descending in winter into more 

 southern latitudes. 



No authentic instance of its breeding in the British Isles has as yet been recorded. Mr, A. G. 

 More refers to the only reputed occurrence in the following words : — " In the ' Zoologist ' for 

 18G4 (p. 9210), the Bev. J. C. Atkinson describes a nest and eggs found near Thirsk, which he 

 supposes to have been those of the Brambling, a bird which in Western Scandinavia does not 



