THE MOUNTAIN FINCH. 
249 
twins, but placed lower down on the body, were presented to the 
Belfast Museum by John Legge, Esq., of Glynn Park, Carrick- 
fergus. They were taken in that gentleman's garden after they 
had just left the nest. 
When at Aberarder, Inverness-shire, and Ballochmorrie, Ayr- 
shire, at the end of autumn, I have remarked that chaffinches are 
not only very numerous, but take the place of sparrows about the 
dwelling-house. In Holland, Erance, Switzerland, and Italy, we 
commonly meet with this species. 
The description of the chaffinch and its propensities, in the 
Journal of a Naturalist, is admirable. Sir Wm. Jardine reports 
on both the good, and the evil that it does.* Brit. Birds, 
vol. ii. p. 302. 
THE MOUNTAIN EINCH. 
Brambling. 
Fringilla montifringilla , Linn. 
Is a frequent, if not a regular winter visitant. 
The Bev. G. M. Black remarked a few of these birds in mid- 
winter for several years successively on the mountains about 
Newtown-Crommelin, county of Antrim ; occasionally they were in 
company with chaffinches. Almost every winter for many years 
past, I have been aware of their occurrence in the north in very 
limited numbers, and have learned from correspondents in all 
quarters of the island that they are of occasional, but generally 
unfrequent occurrence, in their respective neighbourhoods. They 
have been met with in the most southern parts, but seem rather to 
decrease from north to south. On the 18th of October, I once 
received a mountain finch, which was shot in the vicinity of 
Belfast, and in November, the species has been seen here, asso- 
ciating with green-linnets and chaffinches, when for some time 
before and after its appearance, the weather was mild. Such 
birds had evidently come hither in the ordinary course of migra- 
* A friend living near Belfast observed this bird to feed its young on the green 
caterpillars which destroy the leaves of the gooseberry. 
