BRAMBLING 
117 
ness or injury, a Chaffinch will lay unspotted 
eggs of light greenish-blue. The nest is often a 
wonderfully tight fit for the young birds before 
they are ready to fly. The Chaffinch often does 
a considerable deal of damage in a garden to fruit 
and newly-sown seeds, but it is beyond all doubt 
so useful in destroying insects, and also the seeds 
of noxious weeds, that it is very unwise to perse- 
cute it. 
BRAMBLING. 
(Fringilla montifringilla.') 
Bramble Finch, Mountain Finch. — The Bramb- 
ling is a winter visitor from Norway, Sweden, and 
Russia, and the numbers in which it arrives upon 
our shores vary very much in diifferent years, 
according to the mildness or severity of the 
weather prevailing over northern Europe. It 
mainly frequents the eastern and north-eastern 
counties, and the large beechwoods of the Chilterns 
and other inland districts ; in some winters im- 
mense numbers of these birds are to be seen feed- 
ing upon the beech-mast and other seeds or kernels, 
while for several successive years the bird may 
never be noticed at all. It is often seen in com- 
pany with the Chaffinch, which it rather closely 
resembles, being of the same size and very similar 
