2490 Birds, 



as before. Presuming that it was one of those ingenious stratagems 

 to which birds resort when their nest is in danger, I loooked in the 

 sedge, and found a nest : the bird no doubt feigned to be wounded in 

 order to attract my attention from its treasure. 



Yellow Bunting {Emberiza citrinella). 



Chaffinch [Fringilla ccelebs). Our winter congregations consist of 

 both sexes. They will feed on the seeds of the radish, cress, lettuce, 

 mustard, carraway and flax, and are a great nuisance to our horticul- 

 tural grounds. 



Mountain Finch [Fringilla montifringilla). In May, 1840, I no- 

 ticed one hopping on a piece of fallow ground. In 1839 I saw one 

 which had been shot out of a flock that had come to feed at a rick- 

 yard ; and on February 9, 1845, I had three specimens sent to me 

 which had been killed at Weston Cliff. The latter were all males, in 

 fine plumage. Snow was on the ground and the weather very keen, 

 and doubtless the birds were forced southwards to us by stress of 

 weather. 



Tree Sparrow [Fringilla montana). Common, but less numerous 

 than the house sparrow. They flock with buntings and chaffinches in 

 winter, and frequent farmsteads. One killed March 13, 1845, near 

 Newton. Eleven taken by one person with a bird- net, on March 30, 

 1846, near Foremark, where it is plentiful, owing to there being plenty 

 of wood for the birds to breed in. Their nests are found in the heads 

 of pollard-trees, or holes in sound timber, and they manifest consi- 

 derable obstinacy in quitting a spot in which they have been accus- 

 tomed to build. Some boys found a nest in a stunted elm, which 

 they pulled from its hole with a stick and fish-hook, and took from it 

 five eggs. The birds built another, in which they laid four eggs: this 

 shared the same fate. Lastly, they deposited three more eggs in the 

 same hole, without any nest, and reared their brood. They have eggs 

 about the end of March. 



House Sparrow {Fringilla domestica). From January to Septem- 

 ber, 1848, — 4579 sparrows were sent to the "Melbourne Sparrow 

 Club." 



Greenfinch [Loxia chloris). 



Hawfinch [Loxia coccothraustes). During the winter of 1846 the 

 hawfinch was occasionally seen in this neighbourhood, and one was 

 killed from a flock near Repton. 



Goldfinch [Fringilla carduelis). Small parties of goldfinches re- 

 main here throughout the year, wintering upon the pastures at some 

 distance from the village, picking up a scanty maintenance upon the 



