THE BRAMBLING. 99 
frequently indistinguishable from those of the Chaffinch; but usually they are 
decidedly greener, with smaller and less defined markings: a hen Brambling in 
my possession, which must have been taken as a cage-bird to South America and 
liberated there (I picked her out of a batch of newly imported Brazilian birds) 
occasionally drops an egg from the branch on which she roosts; these eggs are 
greenish-blue, like those of a Hedge-Accentor, but with four or five deep brown 
spots on sienna-reddish smears towards the larger end: of course they are always 
broken when I find them. 
Like the Chaffinch, this species feeds largely on insects in the summer time, 
and on various kinds of seed in the winter, it is especially fond of beech-mast, but 
also eats the seeds of many noxious weeds, and fruit. On the ground it both runs 
and hops, but chiefly the former. 
The call-note is usually described as a harsh chirp, probably referring to the 
grating zshweeo which it utters (in common with the Greenfinch, the Baya and 
Manyar Weavers, and many other birds); if so I have no hesitation in asserting 
positively that this is its note of defiance, inasmuch as it not only utters it after 
its song, but when disputing with another bird. I suspect the true call-note to 
be a sharp whzt. The alarm-note according to Seebohm is a hurried zzv, ziv, but 
I have not heard this note from any of the birds which I have kept. The song, 
which I have frequently heard sung by two of my male Bramblings, is very like 
that of the Chaffinch without the terminal notes; as, however, it is generally 
followed, almost immediately, by the harsh cry of defiance, it would almost seem 
as if this might represent the wheat-ear or (zssi-ear of that species. The scale of 
the Brambling is rather shorter than in the song of the Chaffinch, and delivered 
with less vehemence; but, in this respect, individuals may differ. 
A pair of Bramblings formed part of the little collection with which I com- 
menced my studies in aviculture: I kept them with a pair of Goldfinches, a Hedge- 
Accentor, and one or two other birds, in a large home-made flight-cage. These 
were the worst tempered Bramblings I ever had, they disputed incessantly, and at 
first gave the hen Goldfinch a wretched time of it, viciously pecking her whenever 
she went down to feed near them: but one day the cock Brambling made a mis- 
take and pecked the male Goldfinch, which simply sprang at him, grasped his body 
with its claws, and tore a bunch of feathers from his breast. After this both 
Goldfinches were let alone, but the male and female Bramblings fought incessantly, 
the hen eventually pecking out one of her husband’s eyes, soon after which he died : 
curiously enough she only survived him a few days. 
In 1886 I purchased a charming male bird of this species, so gentle and tame 
that its plumage was always in perfect condition; it was passionately fond of bath- 
