80 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
Thomas Aird describes how a female Chaffinch which he 
had tamed in the winter of 1863-1864 ^^^-^^1^''/;^'^^^ 
reared her brood, or rather two, and disappeared tdl one 
the foUo;ing autumn, when she detached he^df 
TL the flock with which she was in company, and came 
to him with signs of the most pleasing recognition. 
ThT popular belief that the alarm- or chaUenge-note 
of this bird foretold ram— 
Weet-weet ! (The cry), 
Dreep-dreep ! (The consequence)— 
^^S'Stt'are occasionaUy met with One such 
obtained about 1868 ^J^'^^^^T^.Z: 
Grierson's museum at ThornhiU. m. J. r„.u„„u 
me that a white specimen was to be seen at RuthweU 
Manse, and on May 21st, 1904, I saw a cock Chaffinch 
with a pure white head in Penpont village. 
THE BRAMBLING. Fringilla montifringilla, Linnseus. 
Local names-MoTTNTAiN-FiNCH ; Cook o' the Noeth. 
An irregular winter-visitor to certain localities. 
Sir William Jardine wrote of the " mountain finch " in 1832 
as "a winter-visitant in large flocks, delighting to feed on 
'Thi"sTeS in the years in which it does visit - a^^^ 
in November and leaves us again m January or February 
Tor its nesting-grounds in the northern fo-st-regio^^^^ torn 
Norway to Kamchatka. On their arrival here they ott«n 
consort with Chaffinches, from which they can be readily 
distinguished by their white rumps. 
A iLge flock seems to have visited the county m 1852 
. Trans. D. and 0. Nat. Hiet. Soc, December 6th, 1864. 
t New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 179. 
