642 Birds. 



to me June 12 : and I am disposed to think it, occasionally at least, 

 rears a second brood; as on August 8 and 9, 1841, I observed a fe- 

 male busily employed collecting bents within a few feet of my window. 



TJie Chaffinch is abundant at all seasons, but especially during 

 winter, when it assembles in large flocks, consisting of both sexes. 



The mountain Finch I have obtained twice ; once in Bonchurch, 

 January 13, 1843, and once at Luccombe, March 15, of the same year. 

 Both birds were adult males. Mr. Butler informs me that in the win- 

 ter of 1842, during a severe frost, a large flock of bramblings visited 

 the neighbourhood of Yarmouth ; and great numbers were caught in 

 bat-folding nets. 



The tree Sparrow I have seen but on one occasion. Five birds, 

 apparently a family party, flew past me, and alighted on a hedge at no 

 great distance ; they allowed me to approach sufficiently near to de- 

 cide positively, with the aid of my glass, on their species. I had no 

 gun, or I might easily have obtained specimens. This was near 

 Shanklin, and occurred November 15, 1843. Mr. Butler has met 

 with it twice, during hard weather ; upon the former occasion, a few 

 years back, the birds were so numerous that he killed ten at a shot : 

 and last winter he obtained four specimens. The three of these that 

 I saw in his possession were adult males. 



The house Sparrow bears as bad a character, and meets with as 

 little kind treatment here as elsewhere : nevertheless, he is the farm- 

 er's friend (except at seed-time and harvest), the gardener's friend, in 

 short, every body's friend, save the owner's of a thatched roof. That 

 he is a pert saucy chap there is no denying ; and that he possesses 

 few personal attractions to recommend him to the favor of the merely 

 casual observer. Yet with us, I think he has some beauty to boast 

 of; for the rich chesnut suit of the back and wing-coverts is really 

 fine. I once saw an ornithological friend at a loss for a time to iden- 

 tify a stuffed specimen in a collection we were inspecting together. 



The Greenfinch is common. 



The Hawfinch I have not met with ; but R. Loe has seen it not 

 unfrequently. It goes by the name of the " cow bird." Mr. Simeon 

 has kindly furnished me with a note of his, made at the time, on the 

 margin of his ' White's Selborne,' to the effect, that in the winter of 

 1832 there were great numbers of the hawfinch about the pleasure- 

 grounds at Swainston, the seat of his father, Sir R. Simeon, Bart. ; 

 but that he heard of them nowhere else. " They flew," the note pro- 

 ceeds, "in parties of four or five, with a quick and jerking flight, 



