212 GROSBEAK. 



body, brown ; the four outer ones seem to be cut off at the tips, and 

 are bent at the ends, having a singular appearance ; the prime quills 

 have each a white spot about the middle of the inner web ; the tail 

 black, but the two middle feathers incline to cinereous near the ends, 

 and all the outer ones have the end half white within, and at the tip; 

 legs pale brown. 



The female is less bright in colour, but in general appearance is 

 much the same ; the black on the chin not occupying the same 

 extent, and in some specimens said to be wholly wanting ;* but we 

 have never met with the circumstance, which probably may have 

 been a mere Variety. These birds, like most others, are subject to 

 differ in plumage : I have observed the middle of the crown in some 

 specimens to be white, in others wholly black ; some have a white, 

 and others a grey band on the wings, in others wholly wanting : 

 birds, too, have been noticed, with the body wholly black ; breast 

 and belly spotted with rufous : and Scopoli mentions one which, the 

 quills excepted, had the whole of the plumage white.-j" Called in 

 England, Hawfinch, Cherryfinch, and Grosbeak. 



The Haw Grosbeak is ranked among the British Birds, but is 

 only an occasional visitor, for the most part in winter, rarely breeding 

 here ; but we have received a specimen, shot in August, near 

 Dartford, in Kent ; and Mr. Leadbeater informed us of a nest of one, 

 with five young, hatched in June, 1816, two of which were then 

 alive in his possession. J It is more plentiful in France, coming into 

 Burgundy in small flocks, the beginning of April, and soon after 

 making the nest, which is placed between the forks of the branches 

 of trees, about twelve feet from the ground, and composed of small 

 dry fibres, intermixed with liverwort, and lined with finer materials ; 



* Br. Zool. f Scop. Ann.'u p. 139. 



% Dr. Lamb mentioned a singular occurrence which took place a few years since, at 

 Donnington, Berks. About two o'clock in the morning, in January, and the weather very 

 stomiy, one of these birds burst through a pane of glass, into a room, supposed to have 

 been pursued by an Owl ; it appeared to be unhurt, and Dr. L. kept it alive through the 

 following summer : it was a male, and had a soft, not unpleasant song. 



