PINE GEOSSBEAK. 
131 
occurred at Hulston, in Lancashire, and Harrow-on-the-Hill, 
in Middlesex. 
In Scotland they were observed by Pennant in the forests 
of Invercauld, in Aberdeenshire, the seat of Farquharson, on 
the 5th. of August. 
In Ireland one is reported by the late William Thompson, 
Esq., of Belfast, to have been shot at Cavehill, near that 
town, in December, 1819. 
These birds are of a gentle and unsuspecting nature, and 
are easily caught, and as easily kept in confinement. They 
go in small flocks of seven or eight—the family party. They 
are fond of bathing themselves. They move both on the 
ground and on the branches of trees by short leaps. 
Their flight, says Audubon, is undulating and smooth, 
performed in a direct line when they are migrating, at a 
considerable height. 
Their food consists of seeds, buds, and berries, and occa¬ 
sionally insects; they also pick up gravel, the prescription of 
Nature, their all-wise physician. 
The note is spoken of as agreeable, and as being sometimes 
heard at night. 
The nest is made of small sticks, and is lined with feathers. 
It is usually placed on the branch of a tree, only a few feet 
above the ground. 
The eggs are said to be four or five in number, and white. 
The young are described as being batched in June. 
Male; length, eight inches and a half; bill, dusky, the lower 
one tinged with red, and the base paler; iris, hazel, surrounded 
with a narrow band of dusky black, which passes over the 
base of the upper bill; strong blackish brown bristly feathers 
directed forwards surround the base of the upper bill. Head, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, bright red; chin, throat, 
and breast, red, but the feathers are greyish black at their 
base, lower down the breast is grey; back, brownish grey, 
the feathers edged with red. 
The wings have the third quill feather the longest, the 
second nearly as long, the first a trifle shorter than the 
fourth, and both shorter than the second, the fifth a quarter 
of an inch shorter than the fourth, the second, third, fourth, 
and fifth have their outer webs slightly cut out; underneath, 
they are slate-colored. Greater wing coverts, greyish black 
tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, greyish black partially 
tipped with white and edged with red, forming two bands 
