BIRDS. 



289 



all the glens as far as arboreal vegetation extends, and far up the 

 main valley of the Spey into Upper Badenoch. 



Fringilla montifringilla, L. Brambling. 



Not rare north of the Ness, but local, probably most numerous 

 where there is abundance of beech-trees, as about Invergordon 

 and district. We have no notice of it from any of the higher 

 straths and glens, but it has been observed by Muirhead at 

 Glen Urquhart. It is rare in Sutherland, though we have 

 observed the species at Badenloch on migration. 



In the south of our area the Brambling is not often seen in any 

 numbers, and is reckoned rare by bird-catchers. Edward says, 

 * A few every season/ i.e. around Banff, and there is one in the 

 Museum, but it is labelled Tivite, thus confusing Mountain Linnet 

 and Mountain Finch ! Its presence, however, is vouched for in 

 Kev. A. Smith's lists. St. John says Bramblings are uncommon 

 and irregular visitants to Morayshire, several years passing with- 

 out any being seen. 



Dr. J. O. Wilson records it as * occurring in winter,' and calls 

 it ' Mountain Chaffinch,' but we do not think this is a recognised 

 local name (?). 'It occurred,' says Hinxman, *in Strathaven in 

 the autumn of 1891 '; he also notes that it is 'met with sparingly 

 among flocks of Chaffinches, and that only in severe winters.' At 

 Damhead, Milton, on the Brodie estate, the Rev. J. Brodie Innes 

 saw a flight of six or eight birds in December 1879, and another 

 flight at the same place in March of the next year. Mr. Robert 

 Peddison, local bird-catcher at Forres, caught one — a male — in 

 December 1891, which is now (1892) in a small aviary belonging 

 to Mr. Macdonald of the Station Hotel, Forres. Mr. Peddison 

 told us : — ' Never, in his long experience, had the Brambling come 

 to his lures, nor had he ever seen any before.' But from other 

 sources we learn that they must have been far from scarce in that 

 district in the severe winter of 1891-92, although he only obtained 

 the one bird. 



In Mr. Campbell Macpherson's aviary at Drumduan, Forres, in 

 the summer of 188G, 'a pair of Bramblings made a rough nest in a 

 small box fastened to a bare tree, laid eggs, and reared one young 

 one— a hen — which I removed a few days ago into the company of 



T 



