3 8 4 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
it not far from Tunkinsk; and on the 14th July 1855 I met with a family of them 
a few versts above the village of Kotchirikowa, the young birds of which were 
Hedged. The male then killed was in moult, the crown being almost featherless. 
Only a few visit the high steppes of Dauria in spring; thus, for instance, a male 
was shot in the hedge of the kitchen garden at Kulssutayefsk; on the other 
hand they were numerous during the autumn migration at the Tarei-Nor. On 
the 15th of August I saw only a few males, on the 16th only a female; and 
on the 26th large hocks, consisting of young birds of both sexes, arrived. On 
the 30th they increased in numbers and frequented the neighbourhood of the 
kitchen garden. Later, when the night frosts set in, they took refuge at night in 
the high reeds which grow round the 
ponds. Here they remained till the 
11th of September; but then the large 
hocks were wanting, and I only saw 
stragglers up to the 15th of September.” 
Usually the brambling lays a larger 
number of eggs than any other of the 
hnches, seldom less than six and more 
generally seven; and when compelled to 
leave its nest to seek food, or for any 
other purpose, the bird is in the habit 
of covering its eggs, which are laid late 
in May or early in June. According to 
Mr. Collett the brambling generally 
builds in a birch or spruce close to the 
main stem, and about six or seven yards 
from the ground. The nest is con¬ 
structed like that of the chaffinch, but generally more of moss. The eggs 
closely resemble those of the chaffinch; but in the latter the general colour 
is greyish brown, not greyish blue, and the spots are smaller. Gould states that all 
the nests which he observed were composed of green mosses and fine, dried grass, 
interwoven with cobwebs and externally decorated with flat pieces of white lichen 
and thin threads of birch bark. They were lined with fine wool and some feathers 
of the white grouse; but we have seen quite a variety of feathers in the nests of 
these birds, including those of the nutcracker. During the autumn considerable 
numbers of bramblings cross the North Sea to winter in the British Isles; their 
arrival being usually heralded by the reiteration of their harsh call-note. They 
frequent stubble-fields and farm-yards in common with chaffinches, greenfinches, 
and sparrows, but prefer to subsist upon beech-mast. The adult male in breeding- 
plumage has the general colour above blue-black, with generally a few sandy 
margins to the feathers; the lower back and rump being white, the wing-coverts 
orange-rufous, tipped with white; the wing-quills black, the primaries being edged 
with pale yellow, and the inner ones white at the base forming a speculum, the 
tail-feathers are black, with the outer pair broadly white for more than half the 
outer web; the crown and sides of the face are black; the throat and breast 
pale orange-rufous, and the flanks spotted with black. 
BRAMBLING. 
