r>9 



shreds of the fine white paper-like outer bark of the birch, which was quite absent from any 

 nests of the Chaffinch which we examined. Nests containing seven eggs were quite common, 

 and one with no less than eight was taken. These latter were all of precisely the same tint ; 

 but one proved to be much more incubated than the rest. The birds were exceedingly bold, 

 and a second female appeared, and showed great interest in the proceedings, rendering it very 

 doubtful that the eggs were all laid by one bird. The eggs of the Brambling seem generally 

 to possess a strong greenish tint, which is not so common in those of the Chaffinch. There is a 

 certain character about these eggs, not easily described in words, but which separates them very 

 clearly from a similar number of Chaffinch's eggs chosen at random." 



Mr. Gould, in his ' Birds of Great Britain,' observes: — "All the nests I observed were very 

 beautifully made, but not so neatly as those of the Chaffinch ; they were also much larger, deeper, 

 and warmer, and made of coarser materials. The walls were composed of green mosses and fine, 

 dried benty grass interwoven with cobwebs, and externally decorated with flat pieces of white 

 lichen and thin glaucous-coloured shreds or peelings of birch-bark, giving the whole a silvery 

 and extremely pretty appearance ; and as they are usually placed near the bole of the white- 

 barked birch, they are not very easily distinguished. Internally they were lined with fine wool 

 and some feathers of the White Grouse, the tips of which frequently rose above the edge of the 

 nest, and curved inwards, so that when the female is sitting she must be almost hidden, the head, 

 the centre of the back, and the tail being all that could be seen. * Their external diameter was 

 about five inches and a half, and their depth three inches and a half; the diameter of the interior 

 was about two inches and a half. The different nests of eggs varied considerably in colour, — one 

 set being clear grey-green, irregularly and faintly blotched all over with brown ; in another the 

 ground-colour was suffused with brown, the blotches or freckles not so distinct, and small 

 chestnut-coloured dots were also dispersed over the surface. The eggs are generally six in 

 number." 



Respecting its food, Yarrell writes : — " They frequent thick hedges, and feed on the grain 

 and seeds to be found on stubble-land, in company with Yellow Buntings, 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 flocks of these birds are observed to feed upon beech- 

 mast." The beech tree seems to be their favourite haunt ; and Lord Lilford tells us that he 

 notices them feeding on them plentifully on his own estate. 



Mr. J. Gatcombe, of Plymouth, kindly sends us the following note : — " FHngiUa montifrin- 

 gilla usually appears in Devon during severe winters, mixing with Chaffinches, Greenfinches, and 

 Sparrows in the farm-yards, among which it might be easily distinguished by its conspicuous 

 white rump. Many years since, when on a visit with my friend the Bev. G. Robinson at ' Elm 

 Park,' in the county of Armagh, Ireland, in March, we met with a flock of some thousands in a 

 beech-wood feeding on the beech-mast, where they remained more than a week. They were 

 almost all in magnificent plumage ; and many that we shot were so fat that they could hardly be 

 skinned. Their note, when disturbed, was a peculiarly harsh kind of scream. When in Milan 

 last autumn I observed in a compartment of an aviary in the Public Gardens full thirty Mountain- 

 Finches (all varieties) more or less mottled with white and yellow, some of which were very 



