Museum of a. & G 'V, COMPARATrVE anatomy IN THE rxiVEKSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, K.I..S., F z.s., ETC. LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW MIxvi'i.WVI-MPCCCrAXXIl. LONDON : PRINTED BY WOOPFALL AND KINPEli, M1LFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. PASSERES. Emberizid^. Plectrophanes nivalis. Snow-Bunting „ lapponicus. Lapland Bunting Ember iza schceniclus. Reed-Bunting ,, rnstica. Rustic Bunting . ,, pusilla. Little Bunting . ,, miliaria. Bunting . ,, citrinella. Yellow Bunting ., cirhis. Cirl-Bunting ,, hortulana. Ortolan . Euspiza melanocephala. Black-headed Bunting 1 15 23 29 34 38 43 50 57 64 FEINGILLIDJ!. Frinqilla ccelebs. Chaffinch ,, moniifringilla. Brambling Passer montanus. Tree-Sparrow ,, domes ficus. House-Sparrow Coccothraustes vulgaris. Hawfinch ,, chloris. Greenfinch Serinus hortulanus. Serin Carduelis elegans. Goldfinch „ spinas. Siskin . I/inota linaria. Mealy Redpoll. ,, rufescem. Lesser Redpoll ,, cannabina. Linnet 1 ,, ffavirostris. Twite 68 7o 82 89 98 105 111 117 120 133 146 153 160 CONTENTS. Fringillid.e — continued. Pyrrhula europcea. Bullfinch . ,, erythrina. Scarlet Grosbeak ,, enucleator. Pine-Grosbeak Loxia curvirostra. Crossbill ,, pityopsittacus. Parrot-Crossbill ,, bifasciata. Two-barred Crossbill ,, leucoptera. White-winged Crossbill Icterim:. Ageheus plux>niceus. Red-winged Starling Stcrnim:. Sturnus vulgaris. Starling Pastor roseus. Rose-coloured Starling: I'A<;f. . 100 172 177 187 207 211 1 218 223 228 243 Corvim:. Pyrrhocorax graculus. Chough. Corvus cora.v. Raven. ,, corone. Black Crow ,, comix. Grey Crow ,, frugilegus. Rook . ,, monedula. Daw Pica rustica. Pie Garrulus glandarius. Jay Nucifraga caryocatactes. Nutcracker Hirundinim:. Uirundo rustica. Swallow Glielidon urbica. Martin . Gotile riparia. Sand-Martin Progne purpurea. Purple Martin 252 259 274 275 289 305 312 323 330 340 349 355 361 PICARI^E. Cypselim. Cypselus apus. Swift ,, melba. Alpine Swift . 364 372 CONTENTS. Caprimulgim:. PAGE Caprimulgus europceus. Nightjar .... 377 Cuculim:. Cuculus canorus. Cuckow ..... 387 Coccystes glandarius. Great Spotted Cuckow . . 408 Goccyzus americanus. American Yellow-billed Cuckow 414 Upupim:. Upupa epops. Hoopoe ...... 419 Coraciidj:. Goracias garrulus. Roller. ..... 428 Meropidji. Merops apiaster. Bee-eater ..... 435 Alcedinim:. Alcedo ispida. Kingfisher ..... 443 Ceryle alcyon. Belted Kingfisher .... 452 PlCIM. Gecinus viridis. Green Woodpecker . . .457 Dendrocopus major. Greater Spotted Woodpecker . 470 ,, minor. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker . 477 lynx torquilla. Wryneck ..... 487 BRITISH BIRDS. PASSE RES. EMBERIZIDjE. Plectkophanes nivalis (Linnaeus*). THE SNOW-BUNTING. Plectrophanes nivalis. PLECTROPtiANES, B. Meyer f. — Bill hard, conical and short; the upper man- dible narrower than the lower, the edges of both inflected and those of the latter sinuated ; the palate furnished with a projecting bony knob. Nostrils oval, basal and placed somewhat near the culmen, nearly hidden by small feathers. Gape angular. Wings long and pointed : fast primary finely attenu- ated and so small as to seem wanting ; second and third nearly equal and the longest in the wing, but the fourth is considerably longer than the fifth. Tail * Emberiza nivalis, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat, Ed. 12, i. p. 308 (1766). t Zusiitze and Berichtigungen zu Meyers and Wolfs Tasehenbuch der deutschen Vi.gelkunde, p. 56 (1822). VOL. II. B 2 E.MBERIZID/E. moderate and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front, covered at the sides with an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge behind, about as long as the middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of the hind toe elongated. Whatever differences of opinion once existed, it has long since been ascertained that the Mountain-, the Tawny and the Snow-Bunting of old authors, are only names for one and the same species in different states of plumage ; but to whom belongs the credit of establishing this fact beyond dispute is by no means clear. Linnaeus indeed never fal- tered in his opinion of their identity, though Pennant and, after him, Latham for some time, took the contrary view. Turton, in 1807, was perhaps the first British naturalist who united the three supposed species into one. This was also done on the continent by Wolf in 1810, by Temminck in 1815 and by Koch in 1816 ; but both at home and abroad they were regarded as distinct by others, and Montagu maintained to the last the separation of Embcriza montana, though allow- ing that E. mustdina and E. nivalis might be specifically identified, on the evidence apparently of his friend Foljambe, an excellent practical ornithologist, — who in a letter to him said " a few years ago, I shot more than forty from the same flock, during severe weather in the month of January, hardly any two of which exhibited precisely the same plumage, but varied from the perfect Tawny to the Snow-Bunting in its whitest state ; the feathers of those of the intermediate state being more or less charged with white." The Snow-Bunting or Snow-flake is generally considered only a winter-visitor to this country, and to the other tem- perate parts of Europe ; large flocks, consisting chiefly of the young birds of the year, bred in high northern latitudes, annually visiting our islands in autumn. But there is little doubt that some pairs breed every summer in the Highlands of Scotland, while the nest and eggs have been several times found in Unst the most northerly of the Shetlands. Pen- nant, during one of his tours in Scotland, learnt that they bred on the summit of the highest hills in the same places as the Ptarmigan, especially naming Invercauld, where he had one shot for him on August 4th; and Thornton mentions SNOW-BUNTING. 3 that be saw some Snow-flakes on the top of a Ptarmigan- mountain near Lochaber August 29th, probably in 1784 or 1785.* It does not appear that the Snow-Bunting was again observed in summer in this district until the middle of July 1874, when Mr. Nicholas Cooke (who had seen several birds on Ben-y-Bhean, one of the Ben Nevis range, July 6th, 1866), as he kindly informed the Editor, saw one in immature plumage on Craig Maige, a hill about 4000 feet high at Loch Laggan. On the other hand the species has been frequently noticed in summer in the neigh- bourhood specified by Pennant. Thus Macgillivray mentions his having observed a beautiful male bird flitting about the summit of Ben-na-muic-dhui (4300 feet) August 4th, 1830, and his meeting some days afterwards with a flock of eight — evidently a family-party, near Lochnagarf (3700 feet) at the top of which just twenty years later he again saw three examples (Nat. Hist. Dee Side, p. 45), while he states on the authority of three informants that the species breeds on several other mountains in the vicinity. From his earlier experience he had already inferred the probability of the Snow-flake breeding, perhaps in considerable numbers, on the higher Grampians, though he truly remarked that it was impossible for the vast flocks seen on the lower grounds in winter to be exclusively of Scottish origin. In 1859, Mr. Edward asserted (Zool. p. 6597) that he had often met with the bird in different places in Banffshire during summer, but had never been able to detect it breeding. Mr. R. Gray states that he has most satisfactory information as to the species being seen throughout the year on the mountains already named, as well as others near them in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Inverness, adding that it was a source of wonder to his informants that they had never found the nest. On June 21st, 1870, Col. Drummond-Hay saw a pair on Ben-na-muic-dhui where he had no doubt * The year in which the Colonel's expedition was made seems to be nowhere stated in his book, and the present Editor only gives it approximately from internal evidence. f It must not however be supposed that the " Snow-Hake" of Byron's poem on this mountain refers to the bird. 4 EMBERIZID.E. they were nesting, and in 1871 Mr. Harvie Brown heard that young birds had been again seen on Lochnagar. Mr. Gray also learnt from Mr. William Hamilton that on July 12th, 1868, that gentleman and his brother saw, on the top of Scuir Ouran, a hill some 4000 feet high on the borders of Inverness and Boss, two pairs of Snow-Buntings, which no doubt were breeding, and the same naturalist also states that near Gairloch, in the western part of the latter county there is a group of high mountains which are likewise frequented by these birds in summer, while Mr. John Bateson of Shielday has lately informed him that they breed in a range of precipitous hills in that neighbourhood.* In the posthumously-published ' Birds of Shetland ' of the lamented Dr. Saxby it is stated that a few Snow-Bunt- ings invariably remain throughout the summer in those islands. Many years ago, having observed them in pairs from May till August on the hill and cliffs of Saxaford in Unst, he became convinced that they must breed there, and his suspicions were strengthened by seeing two of their eggs among the spoils of a local dealer. However he says " No certainty in the matter was arrived at until the 2nd July 1861, when a man discovered a nest and three fresh eggs, all of which he brought to me. He had found them in the crevice of a rock near the top of one of the high sea-cliffs at Burra- firth, below the hill of Saxaford. The nest was rather shallow, and was composed of coarse grass and fibrous roots, lined with wool and fine hair of horses and cows. After this I often observed the birds in the breeding season, once in July, about the cliffs at Graveland, but usually near the old spot." In 1867 Saxby again obtained three more unidenti- fied specimens, and in 1871 a nest and four eggs which had been found the preceding summer among the stones of a demolished cairn in Saxaford. This nest is described as being very like the former one, but it was a little thicker and contained a few pieces of fern in the walls. In the Faeroes a considerable number of Snow-Buntings pass the summer. On the more southerly of the -islands * Capt. Kennedy thinks that it also breeds in the Orkneys (Zool. s.s. p. 3914). SNOW-BUNTING. 5 tliey are restricted to the mountain-tops, but on the more northerly they frequent the lower grounds in small colonies. Wolley found a nest with almost fully-fledged young and an addled egg on the Loisinga Fjseld, July 13th, 1849, but on that hill, in 1872, Capt. Feilden searched carefully without coming across a bird. Throughout Iceland the species is perhaps the commonest of small birds — a pair or more being established in nearly every convenient locality, even among the most desolate lava-streams, and it breeds there almost on the sea-level as well as up to the snow-line. According to Faber it winters in that island. In Spitsbergen it is the only Passerine bird which is ordinarily met with, and though it can hardly be called very numerous there it breeds almost as far to the northward as the land extends. It is doubtless only a summer-visitor, and Dr. Malmgren observed a large flock at sea in the latitude of Bear Island on May 19th, which after resting for a short time on the rigging of the vessel pursued their way in the direction of Spitsbergen. In Nova Zembla Mr. Gillett found it to be very common, and according to Dr. von Heuglin its southward migration thence begins in the middle of September. It breeds throughout Norway, both on the more northern islands of the coast and on the higher fells of the interior, especially within the Arctic Circle, but also on some of the southern mountains, even in Thelemark so low as lat. 60°. Except those on or near the frontier there are few hills in Sweden of sufficient altitude to afford this species a congenial home, but on such as are high enough both there and in Finland it is almost unfailingly to be observed. In Russia the southern limit of its summer-range does not seem to be recorded, but it is believed to breed on the eastern slopes of the Ural, and thence across the most northern portion of Siberia to Bchring's Strait — its distribution at that season being pro- bably as much affected by elevation above the sea-level as by latitude. Throughout the most northern parts of the New World it also breeds, and in many places very abundantly, so that its summer-habits have there been well observed, and for a long time the accounts given by the older explorers 6 EMBERIZID.E. of the Arctic coasts and islands of America furnished almost all the information possessed by naturalists concerning its nidification. But here again the southern limit of its breeding-range seems to be unknown. Audubon mentions a nest found on the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but from the description we may almost safely pronounce that it did not belong to this species. Mr. Allen however, on the authority of Mr. C. W. Bennett, states that a pair reared their young in 1862 at Springfield in Massachusetts. Still Mr. Reeks believes that the Snow-Bunting can hardly breed in Newfoundland, where one would expect that it should, though he saw many there in June 1808. In Green- land it is very abundant and breeds generally throughout the country, for it was even observed by Dr. Pansch to be the commonest land-bird on its seldom-visited east coast. As already intimated on the approach of autumn the Snow-Bunting migrates southward from most of its breed- ing-quarters. In Iceland indeed it is found all the year round, though we may presume that those which remain there are comparatively few, and large flocks visit the Faroes in winter-time, but in Norway at that season it rarely occurs in the most northern districts. From Tromso, however, southward it frequents the coast-region in countless num- bers. These countries supply most of the examples which regularly resort to our own islands and in some years appear in vast flights. The beginning or middle of October is usually the time of their arrival, but a few stragglers are occasionally seen in September*, and though severe weather generally drives them further to the southward, in many localities they abide with us till the end of March or begin- ning of April. During their stay with us the greater number affect rough ground or open fields near the sea- coast, but from time to time small parties occur far inland, so that there is hardly a county in the three kingdoms in * The earliest date for England is perhaps Sept. 16th, 1875, on the Lincolnshire coast, of which Mr. Oordeaux has informed the Editor ; but in the South-west of Scotland Capt. Kennedy has observed it in July and August (Zool. s.s. p. 3914). These birds may have been bred in Great Britain. SNOW-BUNTING. / which the species is not known to have been observed — its appearance in the south of both England and Ireland being, however, far less frequent and regular than in the north. Elevated moors and uplands generally are, almost equally with the localities just named, a favourite resort, and when these are covered with snow the birds descend to the lower grounds where larger supplies of food are to be obtained. " Their call-note is pleasing," remarks Selby, " and often repeated during their flight, which is always in a very compact body ; and frequently before settling on the ground, they make sudden whirls, coming almost in collision with each other, at which time a peculiar note is produced." So close indeed do they fly that one of Thomson's correspon- dents states that he had killed thirty at a single shot, and they crowd together as much when they alight, so that Mr. Lubbock likens the appearance of a flock at rest to "a variegated carpet." Saxby writes " Seen against a dark hill- side or a lowering sky, a flock of these birds presents an exceedingly beautiful appearance, and it may then be seen how aptly the term ' Snow-flake ' has been applied to the species. I am acquainted with no more pleasing combina- tion of sight and sound than that afforded when a cloud of these birds, backed by a dark grey sky, descends as it were in a shower to the ground, to the music of their own sweet tinkling notes." Their food in winter seems to be chiefly grass-seeds, so long as these are forthcoming, but on the sea-coast near the Hurnber, it consists almost exclusively of the seeds of Schoberia or Suada maritima, as mentioned by Mr. Cordeaux, and the Editor is able to state the same fact as regards the west of England from examples sent him by Mr. Cecil Smith and examined by Mr. Hiern. On occasion they will also eat corn — especially oats. Thompson states that once in the north of Ireland they did great harm by picking the sown wheat from the ridges, and Dr. Gordon informs the Editor that they yearly do considerable damage in this way on the shore of the Moray Firth. In America "Wilson found them, in October, feeding not only on the seeds of water-plants but on the shelled mollusks which adhered 8 emberizid;e. to the leaves. On the ground, and in Western Europe they seldom perch on a tree or bush,* they run with ease and speed after the manner of Larks, and like those birds are easily netted or snared. They are commonly fat and well-flavoured. In confinement they seldom live long except under very favourable condition s+. On the continent the Snow-Bunting is a regular winter- visitor to the north of France, central Germany and all the countries between these parts and its breeding-haunts. Stragglers occasionally wander further and have been ob- tained though rarely in the south of France, Switzerland and Italy. Two examples are said to have been caught at Malta in 1840 but possibly the species was mistaken. I Nevertheless Tyrwhitt Drake saw a specimen, since exam- * In North-eastern Russia, however, Messrs. Brown and Seebohm saw them repeatedly perching, both singly and in flocks, upon trees. Audubon in America speaks of their frequently alighting on trees (Orn. Biogr. ii. p. 516), but Dr. Cones (Birds of the Northwest, p. 119) says he has rarely seen them do so. Such is certainly not their habit with us, and the instance to the contrary recorded by Mr. Murray Matthew (Zool. p. 6'2oS) is possibly unique. The state- ment in the published version of Linmeus's Lapland journal (Lachesis Lapponica, ii. p. 97) respecting the people who with a crossbow-bolt "take successful aim at the Emberiza nivalis or Snow-Bunting sitting on the top of the most lofty pines" is such that no ornithologist could suppose was made by one so well acquainted with this species as his account of it (Sw. Yet. Ak. Handl. 1740, p. 368) shews him to have been, and therein he expressly says that it does not commonly sit upon either bough or bush ; but it is satisfactory to the Editor to say, after consulting the original manuscript (p. 260) in the possession of the Linnean Society, that the translator mistook the words " smd Sparfver " (small Sparrows) for " Sno-Sparfver" (Snow-Sparrows) and thus led Sir James Smith to the further error of introducing the scientific name of the latter. t They have however been more than once known to breed in captivity, and Mr. Stevenson possessed a pair which in two successive seasons built a nest inside some rock-work in his aviary. It was indeed inaccessible to his examination but the birds were seen for some days carrying into the hole a large quantity of materials, and soon after the hen used only to appear at long intervals and then for but a few minutes at a time, feeding hastily like a sitting bird and returning to the hole which was jealously guarded by the cock. This went on for about a fortnight when it was supposed that the eggs were hatched, but the young pro- bably died in a few days owing to the want of proper food, for the parents soon abandoned the hole. X The Snow-Finch (Montifringilla nivalin) from its general resemblance to the Snow-Bunting has in several cases been the cause of error as lo the occurrence of the latter in the south of Europe. The bill and hind claws however afford ready characters whereby the one bird may be distinguished from the other. SNOW-BUNTING. 9 ined by Col. Irby, which had been picked up dead at Cape Spartel near Tangier, and Mr. Godman mentions the appearance of a flock of about a score on Corvo, one of the Azores, in the winter of 1864-65, while an example killed in Fayal, another island of that group, was subsequently sent to him. There is no record of its occurrence in Por- tugal or Spain, and it seems to be equally a stranger to Greece or Turkey though it occasionally visits the Crimea. In Asia we have no information as to the southern limit of its winter migration, but Mr. Swinhoe says that it visits the north of China in cold weather, and the Zoological Society has received a living m example from Japan. In America its distribution in winter seems to depend almost entirely on the severity of the season and especially on the amount of snow which may fall, but it is believed not ordinarily to penetrate further towards the south than lat. 35° N. and on the Pacific coast not so far. In the Missouri valley and in New England it is often exceedingly abundant. In the Bermudas it is said seldom to fail making its appearance in December and January, sometimes in considerable numbers. From all southern districts, on the approach of spring, it again returns to the northern latitudes whence it came. Many of the dreariest places in those countries are en- livened by the Snow-Bunting making its home among them. From his perch on some moderate elevation the cheerful, not to say melodious, song of the cock, conspicuous in his pied plumage, gladdens the heart of the traveller over the wildest lava-streams and most barren moors of Iceland, and in lands still more desolate, or even totally destitute of human inhabitants, the agreeable effect of his notes is heightened. But the song, or part of it, is also often delivered on the wing, the bird springing into the air and hovering some ten feet or more above his wonted scat to which on its conclusion he again repairs, or he will flit to some similar station an hundred yards off and thence renew the performance ; while his chosen partner, whose more dusky attire makes her less easily seen, is busily engaged in getting her living from the scanty herbage that sprouts VOL. II. c 10 EMBERIZID.E. between the massive rocks and stones with which the ground is thickly strewn,* or idly basks in a sheltered nook where the slanting rays of the northern sun shed a warmth that though feeble is not despicable. Each pair of birds seems to occupy at this season a limited and almost definite range, the invasion of which is instantly resented by the cock, who with a defiant note darts towards the intruder, when there follows a fierce fight only terminated by the conquest and flight of one of the antagonists, whereupon the victor re- turning to his citadel celebrates the triumph in his loudest strain and most fantastic dance. Even the fitful changes of the stormy summer of these countries do not altogether quell the spirit of this brave little bird, and through driving sleet or thick fog he may still be heard at his post, while with the first gleam of sunshine he is again as gay as before. When his mate is sitting he will often wander to a consider- able distance, but his quickness in perceiving the moment that she, however silently, leaves the nest is something wonderful, and his instantaneously rejoining her shews that he has never been forgetful of his duty. This feature in his character makes the discovery of the nest by any one who has a fair amount of patience almost a matter of certainty. By keeping an eye on the actions of the cock the hen must sooner or later be found, and if incubation be begun not many minutes will then pass before she cautiously commences her return. This she generally accomplishes by a circuitous route, and, creeping close to the earth, taking advantage of every inequality of the ground so as if possible to keep out of the spectator's sight, her movements are hard to follow, and occasionally the birds'-nester will find that her ingenuity has been too much for him. But prudence and a little ex- perience will generally reward his efforts and enable him to mark her disappearance in the mass of stones or chink of a rock in which is the object of her care. Yet to reach the nest when its place is thus discovered is often a work of toil. It may be at the end of a long and tortuous approach, re- * In Arctic America at this time the food is said by Richardson to he buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia, one of the earliest of northern plants. SNOW-BUNTING. 1 1 quiring the removal one by one of many stones of various sizes, it may be ensconced behind some huge boulder which needs all the engineering resources of the seeker to stir or, buried securely beneath a slab of earthfast rock, it may com- pletely defy his power.* Then too his hopes are often dis- appointed, for, despite his utmost precautions, at the last and critical moment some earth or splinters of stone loosened by lever or wedge may be found to have fallen in upon and cracked the eggs as they lie. All these circumstances generally combine to render the successful taking of a Snow-Bunting's nest one of the most delicate and exciting operations on which an oologist can enter, except that personal danger is seldom if ever involved. t As is shewn by the accumulation of old materials often found therein, the birds commonly use the same nest-hole more than once. A rude collection of dry grass, moss or any other plants that may be growing near forms the founda- tion and outworks of the nest. This is hollowed out to receive a quantity of finer grass and roots substantially woven into a bowl, which will occasionally bear removal from the outer mass without losing its shape, and is lined with hair or soft feathers — especially those of the Ptarmigan of the country. Herein are laid the eggs, from four to six or even eight in number, measuring from '91 to *8'2 by from •65 to "57 in. They are white, more or less tinged with pale greenish-blue, on which are patches of lilac, sometimes very bright but generally dull, the whole closely or sparingly spotted, streaked and splashed with deep brownish-red, upon which again are frequently a few apparently black spots and irregular lines. Some eggs when fresh are of exceeding and almost indescribable beauty. It remains to add that the young, soon after they are • Capt. Lyons found a nest placed in the bosom of the corpse of an Esquimaux child on Southampton Island. t Pages might lie written on the breeding-habits of this species without ex- hausting the subject. The Editor has necessarily to be brief here and only to describe what seems to be absolutely requisite to give a slight notion of them. To him the Snow-Bunting will always be one of the most interesting of birds, from the many hours he has passed in watching its behaviour. 12 EMBER1ZID.E. hatched, are clothed with dark sooty down, and are fed, as would appear from Herr Collett's observation, chiefly on the lame of Tlpullda'. Their plumage when they have left the nest will be presently described, and they accompany their parents for some time, perhaps until the advancing season gives all warning to depart for other lands. Then the dif- ferent family-parties unite in bands whose numbers are daily swollen by fresh adherents until they form a mighty host that with the first frosts of winter takes wing over the southern seas. The adult male in breeding-plumage*, of which a good representation is given by Bewick, has the bill black : the irides hazel : the head, neck and all the lower parts pure white, though in some examples the top of the head and the nape are mottled with black, and there is generally a black spot visible above and behind the ears. The upper wing- coverts, except those of the bastard-wing which are black, and the secondaries white ; but the latter are often black towards the extremity, though their tip seems to be always white ; and in some examples the middle wing-coverts are also black, bordered with greyish-white, forming a distinct black bar across the wing ; the primaries and tertials are black, the former however white at the base, and the latter often bordered outwardly with white ; the back is jet-black, mottled more or less on the rump with white ; the three inner pairs of tail-quills black, occasionally slightly bordered or tipped with white, but the three outer pairs are nearly white, with a black patch towards the tip : the legs, toes and claws black.f The adult female, at the same time, much resembles her * In this state English specimens are very rare : one was killed in the grounds of Mr. Wortham, at Royston, May 22nd, 1840, and given by him to the Author of this work ; a second, " pretty far advanced," was shot near Penzance' in April, 1864, as recorded by Mr. Rodd (Zool. p. 9109); a third, in "full summer plumage," was obtained, according to Mr. Dutton (Zool. s.s. p. 792), April 14th, 1867, at Eastbourne, and a fourth, in "full breeding plumage," at the same place early in July, 1872, as mentioned by Capt. Kennedy (Zool. s.s. p. 3914). + The birds which in breeding-plumage exhibit the black mottling of the head and the black bar on the wings are most likely those in which the white tip of the feathers is worn off more than in the others. SNOW-BUNTING. 13 partner, but the white on the head and the rest of the upper parts is much more mottled with black and dusky, and her colours are not so pure. The young, in its first plumage, has the bill yellow, dark at the tip of the upper mandible, the head, sides of the neck and the back are of a greyish-olive, variegated towards the rump with reddish-brown ; the white of the wings is also tinged, and the quills of both wings and tail are bordered with the same colour ; the throat and lower parts are dirty white, tinged on the throat and belly with pale yellow, and on the breast and flanks with reddish-brown. The adult male, on its arrival here towards winter, as figured at the head of this article, has the bill yellow, darker at the tip : top of the head and the ear-coverts more or less covered with deep reddish-brown on a white ground ; the feathers on the back black at the base, with broad ends of pale reddish-brown ; the wings much as in the summer- plumage except that the tertials are broadly bordered with dull chestnut ; upper tail-coverts black at the base with broad ends of pale reddish-brown or, in some examples, of white, and hardly shewing any of the first colour ; the tail as in summer ; all the lower parts dull white, more or less tinged with reddish-brown on the breast and flanks. In this state it has been called the Tawny Bunting ; when present- ing less white than the figure here given, it is in the state called the Mountain-Bunting. The female at the same time, figured by Bewick as the Tawny Bunting, has the top of the head dull chestnut- brown, which becomes paler on the nape; the whole upper surface mottled with blackish-brown and dull chestnut ; the wings shew but little white except at the tip of the lesser coverts and the base of the secondaries ; the white of the tail is less bright ; the chin and throat are dull chestnut, becoming deeper in tone across the upper part of the breast, the rest of the lower surface dull white. The whole length of the male is about seven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather, four inches and a quarter. The females are a little smaller. 14 EMBERIZULE. Systematic ornithologists long ago recognized the distinct- ness of the families Emberizidce and Fringillidce, but of late most authors have shewn a disposition to merge the former in the latter. Very recently Prof. Parker has ascertained the existence in the Emberizidce of an additional pair of palatal hones (the " palato-maxillaries," as he calls them) which are wanting in the normal Fringillidce, and this discovery will probably lead to a restoration of the older view ; but it would seem that certain American forms, as Cardinalis and Phrygilus, hitherto unhesitatingly assigned to the Fringillidce, also possess these bones, and will therefore have to be included among the Emberizidce, though it is not at all impossible that among the birds of the New World some will be found which, by the structure of their palate, bridge over the gap between the two families. The palatal knob, so characteristic of most of the Buntings — especially those of the Old World — is, according to the same investigator, formed by a swollen ingrowth of the dentary edges of the premaxillary mass. The Linnaean genus Emberiza has been split into many groups by various authors. Several of these obviously do not deserve recognition as genera, the characters which distinguish them being very trifling ; but the present species and the next differ so much from the normal Buntings in the form of the wing, in the straight hind-claw, and in their habit of running and not hopping on the ground and of singing in the air, that the admission of Bernhard Meyer's genus, Plectrophanes, for their reception would appear to be needed. LAPLAND BUNT^G. PASSERES. 15 EMBERIZIDuE. Plectrophanes lapponicus (Linnaeus*). THE LAPLAND BUNTING. Plectfopha nes Lapponica. The Lapland Bunting, a native, as its name imports, of the most northern parts of Europe, and even of the Arctic Piegions pretty generally, has heen taken on several occasions in this country. The first instance was announced to the Linnean Society by Selby, early in 1820, the bird having been found in Lcadenhall Market, whither it had been sent with some Larks from Cambridgeshire, and after being preserved by Mr. Weighton of the City Road, passed into Vigors's collection, which was subsequently given to the Museum of the Zoological Society. The second exam- • Fringilla lapponica, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 317 (1766). 16 EMBRIUZID.E. pie was caught on the downs near Brighton, in or prior to 1827, and kept caged for some months, when it came into my own collection (Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 156). The third was also taken alive in September, 1828, a few miles north of London, and its capture made known by Mr. Gould (Zool. Journ. v. p. 104). The fourth, caught near Preston in Lancashire, in October, 1833, was selected from a variety of other small birds in the Manchester market, and is now preserved in the museum of that city. The fifth is recorded (Zool. p. 31G) as having been obtained in the summer of 1843 near Milnthorpe in Westmoreland. Each of these examples exhibited the plumage of the less conspicuous bird in the woodcut here given. On September 30th, 1844, an adult male was netted with some Larks on the downs near Brighton ; and this specimen, which I have seen in the pos- session of Mr. Borrer, is in the plumage of summer as represented in the lower figure, but undergoing a slight change from the advance of the season. Since this date the occurrence in England of more than a dozen examples has been put on record. Most of them were caught alive, and kept for a longer or shorter time in captivity. Three of them are said to have been taken near Brighton, three not far from London, four in Norfolk, two in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, one near Southport in Lancashire, and one near Durham. In most cases the birds were associating with Larks, and no mention is made of any one of them being accompanied by others of its own species. The Lapland Bunting is stated to have been found twice in Caithness, the only instances of its being observed in Scot- land ; but its appearance in Ireland has not been recorded. The home of this species is neither so far to the north- ward nor in such alpine heights as that of the preceding. It never verges on the line of perpetual snow nor inhabits the stony wastes so much affected by the Snow-Bunting, but prefers the upland swamps where there is a thick growth of low willows and other plants characteristic of such spots, especially if there be also an abundance of long grass. These places are in Lapland equally the resort of LAPLAND BUNTING. 17 the Bluethroat, the northern form of Yellow Wagtail, the Red-throated Pipit and the Titlark ; but this Bunting will also frequent higher levels than any of those birds, the last only excepted, and may be found in colonies where the cloudberry and the dwarf birch form the prevailing vege- tation. Arriving from the south at such bogs, so soon as the surface-soil is thawed, the cock-birds are fond of display- ing their gay plumage to the best advantage on any elevated perch, and rising in the air deliver, while hovering on the wing and then gently gliding to another station, a song that though not marked by any brilliant notes has a tone of sweetness ; yet the gesture by which it is accompanied supplies its principal attraction. When not singing they mostly occupy themselves in chasing or being chased by one another, or, sitting on the most prominent position avail- able — and it must be said that any prominent position on a bog of this kind is comparatively humble — from time to time utter a rather harsh though plaintive note. The pre- liminaries to the breeding- season being ended, this species is usually seen in pairs, but the several pairs do not evince that dislike of their neighbours' society which is so cha- racteristic of the Snow-Bunting, and thus the same suitable moss or portion of a moss, often of very limited area, will accommodate a dozen or more pairs which, the exciting period just mentioned being past, soon enter peaceably upon the work of nest-building. For this purpose the shelter of a thick tussock of grass, the base of a ligneous shrub or any inequality the ground itself may present is chosen, and the foundation is laid with the usual rough materials. Within this a cup-shaped nest is formed, chiefly of the stems of dry grass, and then a bedding of soft feathers is superimposed. This lining, according to the Editor's experience, invariably* distinguishes the nest * Richardson, however, writing of this bird in Arctic America, says that the " nest is lined very neatly and compactly with deer's hair." He was an observer so scrupulously accurate that one can hardly doubt his word, yet it is to be remarked that it seems just possible for him to have mistaken the nest of one of the allied North-American species (Plectrophanet pictus, which is said not to use feathers, for example) for that of the Lapland Bunting. Nests of this last VOL. II. D 18 EMBERIZID.E. of the Lapland Bunting from that of any other bird fre- quenting the locality, and therefore deserves especial men- tion, since the eggs, from five to seven in number, not uncommonly so closely resemble those of the Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus), Titlark and even the Reed-Bunting (which occasionally finds its way to the breeding-haunts of the present species) that they cannot always be picked out. They measure from *87 to *78 by from "61 to '55 in., and have a clay-coloured or pale greyish-chocolate ground, suf- fused with darker reddish-brown, on which are seen spots, blotches and curved lines of a darker shade of the same tint, in many places distinct, but the larger markings gene- rally with blurred edges. When the young have left the nest they accompany their parents for some time, and the family-parties unite towards the end of the summer, but it does not appear that this species ever forms very vast congregations — indeed it is hardly anywhere sufficiently numerous to do so, being generally a local bird. In Europe its breeding-range seems not to extend farther southward than lat. 62° N., and that only in the mountain-districts of Norway, while in Sweden, Finland and Russia its summer-limit, though from want of information not to be determined, must lie much more towards the north. In Asia also it cannot be said to be known to breed outside of the Arctic Circle, but in Eastern Siberia it is apparently more abundant than else- where in the Old World, since in autumn Mr. Swinhoe found it in the market at Tientsin by thousands which had doubtless been bred to the northward. In the New World it breeds on the most western of the Aleutian and on the Prybilov Islands, as well as in Alaska. The Hepburn Collection in the Museum of the University of Cam- bridge contains a specimen in full summer-plumage from Fort Simpson in British Columbia, which is perhaps the obtained by Mr. II. W. Elliott on the Prybilov Islands are said to have con- tained feathers, and those from Greenland, of which the Editor lias seen several, are profusely lined with them. It may here be mentioned that eggs of this bird from Greenland are on the average distinctly larger than those from Lapland. LAPLAND BUNTING. 19 most southern locality known for the species in America at that season, though Mr. Trippe's observations in Minnesota induce him (Proc. Essex Inst. vi. pp. 113-119) to think that it may breed in that State. Richardson states that it breeds in moist meadows on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and that is also the case along the west coast of Green- land, while the German Expedition obtained it full sum- mer-dress at Shannon Island on the east coast. Mr. Dresser was informed by Herr Benzon that he had received its eggs from Iceland, but the species must be rare in that island if indeed there be more than the one unquestion- able instance of its occurrence, in 1821, as recorded by Faber. The line of this bird's migration has been supposed to lie a good deal to the eastward, for though, as already said, it is in summer pretty widely distributed in Norway and Lapland its occurrence at other seasons has been but seldom recorded in the western part of the continent of Europe. This remark applies even to the lowlands of Central and Southern Norway and Sweden, and it has only been observed as an irregular autumnal visitor to Denmark, many districts in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. But on the other hand this apparent rarity is most likely due to its being overlooked in those countries, since Mr. Cordeaux, on Mr. Gatke's authority, says that in Heligoland it is so com- mon in autumn as not to be considered worth shooting. In severe winters it has been met with much further to the southward, even in the neighbourhood of Montpellier, as well as in Piedmont and in Lombard} 7 , but it does not seem to reach Central Italy. Its occurrence near Geneva was long ago recorded by Necker, and further eastward it has been met with in the Vienna market and at Lemberg. In Central and Southern Russia it is said to be very rare, but about Moscow and Jaroslav a few are met with in spring and autumn, but not every year. Across the Ural — which chain of mountains it has from the time of Pennant been known to frequent, while it has even been supposed to breed near Ekaterincburg — it becomes more abundant, and, accord- 20 EMBERIZIDiE. ing to Eversniann, is very common on the Kirgis Steppes. Thence we have no intelligence as to the extent of its winter-migrations till we come to China, its appearance in the northern parts of which country has heen already noticed. In America the limits of its range at the same season are also uncertain, hut it would seem not to reach California on the west, further to the southward than the Upper Missouri in the interior, or Kentucky and Pennsylv- ania for the eastern part of the continent. Richardson never met with this species in the Fur-countries during winter, but in 1827 it appeared on the plains at Carlton House about the middle of May and on the newly-ploughed land at Cumberland House, which is a little further to the north, a few days later; but in the preceding year many were seen early in May at Fort Franklin, though that is situated within a degree of the Arctic Circle. The latest collections, made by Kennicott and others, in this part of the Dominion of Canada speak to the abundance of the Lapland Bunting near the Mackenzie River and the Great Slave Lake. In its fondness for swampy places and its general appear- ance this bird much resembles our common Reed-Bunting, so that it may have been often mistaken for that species ; but, though frequently perching on bushes, it runs on the ground as does the Snow-Bunting ; and, except in the breed- ing-season, has many times been observed in company with the latter or associated with the Shore-Lark. As to its food little has been ascertained. The crops of those killed at Fort Franklin were filled, says Richardson, with the seeds of Arbutus aljiina, but the Chinese, according to Mr. Swinhoe, take them in springes baited with the small maggots which are found in decaying millet-stalks, these birds must therefore have a strong fancy for animal food even in winter. Herr Collett found only small insects and gravel in the stomachs of those which he examined during the summer in Norway. The adult male in full breeding-plumage has the bill yellow, with the point black : irides hazel : the whole of LAPLAND BUNTING. 21 the head velvet-black*, with the exception of a streak of yellowish-white which, beginning at the nostril, runs on either side over the eyes, where it becomes a broad stripe, and passes above and behind the ear-coverts to the sides of the neck whence it turns downward to the throat ; beneath this stripe a collar of bright chestnut, widest on the nape of the neck, extends forward to a point on either side ; the back, rump and upper wing-coverts, dark brown with lighter edges, those of the smaller wing-coverts being whitish, the rest reddish-brown, which becomes almost chestnut on those of the greater coverts and tertials ; the other flight- feathers blackish-brown, with a narrow light outer margin ; the tail-feathers also blackish-brown, with narrow lighter edges, but the two outer pairs have an angular patch of white and a brown shaft-mark towards their tip ; beneath, the black of the head descends to the throat and upper part of the breast, where it forms a fine gorget surrounded by the white stripe already described ; the rest of the lower parts dull white, the sides of the breast and flanks being streaked with black : legs, toes and claws, pitch black. The whole length is about six inches and a quarter. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and five-eighths. The female differs in wanting the conspicuous black head and gorget, and in having the top of the head blackish-brown, the feathers tipped with wood-brown, the under portion of the ear-coverts and a stripe from the corner of the mouth black — the rest dull yellowish-white ; the chin and throat dull white with a black line descending from each corner of the lower mandible, which there uniting with the stripes from the mouth forms an ill-defined patch on the upper part of the breast ; the chestnut collar is smaller and less bright than in the male and is more or less mottled with dark brown ; the rest of the plumage is nearly alike in both sexes. After the autumn-moult the male has those parts which * If the plumage be not quite perfect there is generally a trace of a ligbl median streak on the occiput. 22 EMBERTZIDJE. were black in summer, as well as the chestnut collar, mottled with dark brown and white. The darker hue of the breed- ing-dress is produced by the buff edges of the feathers dropping off. My own young bird has the bill brown : the whole plumage dark brown, with light brown edges ; wing- and tail-quills brownish-black ; throat, breast and all the lower surface, pale brown, spotted with darker brown on the breast and flanks : legs, toes and claws, light brown. The vignette represents the foot and sternum of this species. REED-BUNTING. PASSE RES. 23 EMBERIZIDjE. '"■y. • ft Emberiza. schceniclus, Linnasus*. THE REED-BUNTING. Emberiza schceniclus. Emberiza, Linnaeus^. — Bill hard, conical and short; the upper mandible not wider than the lower, the edges of both inflected and those of the latter sinuated ; the palate generally furnished with a projecting bony knob. Nostrils oval, basal and placed somewhat near the culmen, partly hidden by small feathers. Gape angular. Wings moderate : first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting ; second, third and fourth generally nearly equal, the fourth or fifth commonly the longest in the wing and considerably longer than the next. Tail rather long and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front, covered at the sides with an undivided plate forming a sharp ridge behind, almost as long as the middle toe. Claws considerably curved, that of the hind toe of moderate length. The Reed-Bunting, or Reed- Sparrow J, as it is most com- monly culled, is a well-known inhabitant of marshy places * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 311 (1766). + Tom. clt, p. 308. J The name of Black-headed Bunting, first applied to this species by Beilby (who wrote the text of the first volume of Bewick's well-known work) and adopted in former editions of these volumes, had already been appropriated by Latham to a perfectly distinct species. As the latter has now to be included as a " British Bird" there seems to be no choice left but to fiill back upon the older and far more generally used name of Reed-Banting. 24 EMBERIZIDJE. and the sides of running or stagnant waters where they are bordered by alders, osiers, reeds or rushes ; and, though local from its partiality to such situations, it is not a rare species in this country, where it remains throughout the year, shifting its haunt however to some extent according to the season, and in hard weather not unfrequently joining the congregations of other Buntings and Finches which assemble round corn- stacks and in barn-yards, occasionally far away from water. The contrast of the black head of the cock-bird in spring or summer with the white collar on the neck, and the varied colours of the back, give it an agreeable appearance, and it is accordingly a pretty general favourite. If suitable localities are visited, the male during the breeding-season may be seen perched on a conspicuous spray by the water-side, amusing his mate and himself for an hour together with his song, which consists of an interchange of two or three notes, the first of which are short and the last of all long. This song, repeated at brief intervals, has a family-likeness to that of the allied species, but, apart from its seeming harmony with the dreary spots the bird often frequents and enlivens, it must be deemed wanting in melody, and when heard, as it may also be, in a fertile valley amid the voices of other birds sounds harshly and out of place. The nest is generally built on the ground among long grass or rushes, at the foot of a thorn or on the side of a bank, more rarely in a low bush, elevated some few inches above the ground ; but Jardine states that he has frequently found it on a young spruce-fir, at the height of from one to three yards. It con- sists of coarse grass with a little moss, lined with finer grass and hairs, or in places where reeds abound the feathery tops of those plants often form the sole lining and the greater part of the structure. The eggs are from four or five to seven in number, of a pale purple-brown or clay-colour, spotted, blotched and streaked with a darker purple-brown or black, and measure from '83 to '7 by from -62 to *56 in. Incu- bation often begins at the end of March, but a second nest is generally made, and perhaps even a third brood is pro- duced in July. Several observers have recorded the artifices REED-BUNTING. 25 to which this species has resort to distract the attention of man from its progeny. The most common of these is the feigning of lameness by the mother-bird, who with trailing wing or leg, as if disabled, will shuffle through the herbage for a considerable distance ; but at times the cock will also enter into the wiles of his mate, and both parents will dis- play an extraordinary amount of solicitude in regard to a spot which does not harbour the young with the consequence of misleading the intruder, if at all wanting in experience, from the place where they lie. The food of the Reed- Bunting is grain, seeds (chiefly those of grasses) and insects — on the larva? of which last the young are especially fed — with small freshwater crustaceans and mollusks, and its stomach usually contains much fine gravel. By some of the older naturalists the song and the nest of the Reed- Wren and Sedge-bird already described (vol. i. pages 369 and 376) have been attributed to the Reed-Sparrow, and perhaps there may yet be writers so ill-informed as to con- tinue the mistake. The hurried, varied and chattering notes of both those Warblers can never be for a moment confounded with the simple strain of this Bunting by any one who has heard the latter, and in like manner though its nest be occa- sionally composed of the same materials as that of the Reed- Wren, before figured in this work {torn. clt. page 375), the one can always be known by its smaller size and neater workmanship, and by its being wholly suspended between the reed-stems, while the other even when attached to the stems seems to be always supported from beneath. The Reed-Bunting breeds in suitable localities almost everywhere throughout the British Islands, Shetland being the principal exception, since there, according to Saxby, only three examples have been observed, but these arrived in the earlier half of the year. Baikie and Heddle state that it has bred in Orkney, and Mr. Gray says that it does so in most of the Outer Hebrides, indeed, according to information communicated by Capt. Powlett-Orde, it is very common in North Uist. In Scotland generally its numbers seem to receive a large increase in winter, and probably the same is VOL. II. E 26 EMBERIZID.E. the case to some extent in England — at any rate on the east coast. In Ireland, says Thompson, it is a resident distributed over the whole island, which from the prevailing humidity is peculiarly well suited to it. It is found in swampy ground over almost the whole of continental Europe from the neighbourhood of the North Cape to the Straits of Gibraltar, and apparently in all the principal islands of the Mediterranean as far as Crete. It occurs too in the neighbourhood of Tangier, and, according to Loche, inhabits all three of the provinces of Algeria, but from the silence on the subject of several other observers in that country it would seem not to be plentiful there, and it is not to be traced further to the eastward in Africa. As to the determination of its range in Asia great difficulty at present exists, for there is certainly a second, if not a third, form of Eeed-Bunting found in many parts of Siberia, and the Russian ornithologists do not agree with regard to the rank to be assigned to either or both. It would seem, however, that a form quite indistinguishable from our own occurs throughout the south-western portion of the Russian dominions in Asia, and that this was also found by Dr. Severzov in Turkestan. Mr. Hume too (Ibis, 1869, p. 355) has obtained it from near Badlee, some thirty miles to the south of Delhi, and the identity of the species with the European bird was subsequently confirmed by the late M. Jules Verreaux, though the Reed-Bunting had been hitherto unknown in India. The bill is dusky brown above, paler beneath : irides hazel : the adult male in breeding-plumage has the whole of the head jet-black, bounded by a white collar, which descends to the breast ; from near the corner of the gape a white stripe passes backwards below the ear-coverts and joins a broad white nuchal collar, which is succeeded by a narrow band of iron-grey and dull black ; back and wing-coverts deep . brownish-black, each feather broadly bordered with bright bay and ochreous, the former so predominating on the upper wing-coverts that they seem to be wholly of that colour ; the wing-quills dark brown, the primaries with a narrow margin REED-BUNTING. 27 of ochreous-white, but that of the secondaries and tertials, especially the latter, broader and redder as the inner part of the wing is approached ; the rump and upper tail-coverts brownish-black mixed with iron-grey ; the tail-quills dark brown ; the middle pair somewhat lighter than the rest and with broad light edges, the two outer pairs margined exteriorly with white and having a large white patch on the inner web ; chin and throat black, which at first widens out under the white collar and then forms a pointed gorget ending on the upper part of the breast ; all the rest of the lower plumage white, which is pure on the sides of the breast, belly and lower tail-coverts, but clouded and streaked with brown on the sides of the body, flanks and tibiae : legs, toes and claws, brown . The adult male in autumn and winter has all the feathers of the upper parts so broadly bordered with light reddish- brown that the darker tints are greatly if not altogether obscured. The same is the case on the chin and throat, so that the bird seems to have a brown head, only here and there mottled with black. In the spring these light edges fall off and leave the head and throat of a pure black. The whole length of the male is six inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches : the third, fourth and fifth primaries nearly equal in length, and con- siderably longer than the second, which again is a little longer than the sixth. The female is rather smaller than the male, and has the upper part of the head and ear-coverts dark brown, the feathers being bordered with light reddish-brown ; the lores and a stripe over and behind the ear-coverts, pale yellowish- brown ; the back and wings almost as in the male ; the chin and lower parts dull white with an interrupted streak of dark brown descending from each lower corner of the mandible ; the feathers of the chest dark brown along the shaft, becoming light reddish-brown on each web, and bordered with dull white, so as to present a distinct and broad spotted gorget. Young birds in autumn and winter have the bill dusky 28 EMRRRTZm.E. horn-colour, the lower mandible yellowish ; the plumage generally resembles that of the female, but the light-coloured borders of the feathers are so long as to conceal nearly all the darker part, and while those of the crown of the head, the nape and back are edged with ochreous-grey, those of a stripe on each side of the vertex, and of the wing-coverts, tertials and inner secondaries are* more rufous ; the line immediately over the eye, and the front and sides of the neck are pale ochreous, but the ear-coverts and the streak from the lower corner of the mandible are distinctly marked with dark brown ; the pectoral gorget is ill-defined, and the longitudinal streaks which mark it are continued along the sides of the body and flanks. Young males seem to acquire the black head in the spring following their first winter. It was proposed by Friedrich Boie (Isis, 1826, p. 974) to separate this species from the genus Ember iza, but whatever reason he might have had for so doing he gave none, and it seems to the Editor that none which can be deemed sufficient is assignable. Nevertheless Boie's pro- posed genus Cynchramus has been adopted by several writers. The vignette below represents the breast-bones of the great Bunting, to be preseutly described, and the Reed-Bunting. RUSTIC BUNTING. PASSERES. 29 EMBERIZIBJR. Emberiza rustica, Pallas*. THE RUSTIC BUNTING. News of the first and hitherto the only known occurrence in England of the beautiful Bunting above figured was com- municated to ' The Ibis ' for 1869 (p. 128) by Mr. Gould in a letter dated December 30th, 1868. The specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. Monk, was caught near Brighton, October 23rd, 1867, and shewn while alive to Mr. Rowley. Its portrait has been given by Mr. Gould in his ' Birds of Great Britain.' The proper home of this species is the north-eastern part of Europe and the most northern part of Siberia. Pallas originally described it as arriving in March in the willow- beds of Dauuria, afterwards adding that it is abundant along the rivers of Transbaikalia, where it sits on the ground and trees singing with a voice not unlike that of the Reed-Bunting. Steller observed it in Kamchatka, as Kitt- litz subsequently did. Nearer to us it was shot at Hapa- * Reisen durcli verscliiedene Provinzen dea Rnssisehen Reichs, iii. p. 698 (177'i». 30 EMBERIZID.E. randa, May 20th, 1821, and the specimens so obtained were described as a new species, under the name of Emberiza borealis by Zetterstedt (Resa genom Sveriges och Norriges Lappmarker, 1822, i. p. 107), who was not aware of Pallas's prior discovery; but Prof. Nilsson, who had pre- viously met with the bird and thought it to be a variety of E. schoeniclus, a few years later conclusively identified the two supposed species. Zetterstedt during a second journey (Resa genom Umea Lappmarker, 1833) be- lieved he had met with it in various places in Umea and Lycksele Lappmark, but there is reason to suppose him mistaken; for, though Schrader states (Journ. fur Orn. 1853, p. 256) that he found it breeding in Lapland, it never revealed itself to the keen scrutiny of Wolley, Pastor Sommerfelt or Herr Nordvi, and it must be regarded as a mere straggler to that country. Nevertheless a little further to eastward it would seem to be a regular summer- visitant, and Dr. Malmgren has kindly informed the Editor that it breeds every year near Kajana in Finland, in which country it had before been observed by Johann von Wright and Arthur von Nordmann. In the neighbourhood of Archangel also it annually appears and doubtless breeds. The naturalists to whom we owe nearly all our knowledge of the ornithology of Northern and Eastern Siberia — Drs. von Middendorff, von Schrenck and Radde — never found it breeding in the parts of the country which they explored, though they corroborated the statement of Pallas by observing it as a regular bird-of-passagc in various localities. Mr. Swinhoe has met with it in North China;* and it has long since been recorded as a visitor, at least, in Japan. As a straggler in autumn or winter it has occurred several times in Southern Sweden, and occasionally in Germany from Altenburg to Austria. Mr. Gatke has obtained it at least four times in Heligoland, and it extends its wanderings * In one of his numerous and valuable contributions to Chinese ornithology (Ibis, 1861, p. 255) he stated that this species had occurred to him in Talien Bay, in June or July, 1860, but herein he was, as he has subsequently informed the Editor, in error, having mistaken another species for it. RUSTIC BUNTING. 31 not unfrequently to the South of France and Northern Italy. Naturalists have long hesitated whether the Mitilene cle Provence, figured in the ' Planches Enluminees' (656, fig. 2*), was not this species, and to judge from the plate so it was ; but the belief of De M ontbeillard and some others in its being a native of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean is assuredly an error. It was said by Temminck to occur in the Crimea, but this is probably one of the random assertions to which he was prone, and the authority on which it was made is not stated. Of the habits of this bird little has been recorded. They would seem on the whole not to differ much from those of the Keed-Bunting ; but Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown state that the specimens they procured near Archangel were found in marshy pine-woods and in openings in the forest — places which would hardly be frequented by that species. They add that its call-note resembles that of its congener; but other observers have likened the sound to that produced by very different birds — the Redwing and Redbreast for example. Disregarding, for the reasons before assigned, the account given by Schrader, nothing seems to be positively known as to its nidification. An egg pro- fessedly belonging to this bird, in the possession of the Editor, measures "84 by *6 in. and is of a pale greenish- white, patched with dull ash-colour and streaked and spotted with dark olive — much resembling certain varieties of those which the Lapland Bunting occasionally lays. Few of the Buntings bear confinement well, but M. Barthelemy-Lapommeraye kept an example of this species in an aviary for two years, and Mr. Keulemans, the draughtsman to whom the present edition of this work is indebted for the foregoing figures of this and some of the other species now for the first time introduced, had an example for more than eighteen months in a cage. It was a cock-bird, and was bought by him at Amsterdam in October 1868, but made its escape in England in April 1870 ; while in the year last * On this figure is founded the Emberiza lesbia of J. F. Gmelin (Syst. Nat. i. i> 382). 32 EMBERIZIDJE. mentioned a third is said to have been brought alive from Moscow to Berlin. The adult male in full summer-plumage has the bill greyish-yellow, with the upper mandible brown : the irides yellowish-brown : the lores, ear-coverts and top of the head black, with but a scanty trace of the pale median streak along the vertex which at other seasons is very conspicuous ; above and behind the eye a stripe of pure white passes backwards, nearly meeting a white patch on the nape, which is immediately succeeded by a collar of bright bay descending on each side so as to encircle the throat ; the back and upper wing-coverts are reddish-brown mottled with black, the feathers of the former, with the scapulars, being black near the shaft edged wdth bright bay and then more or less broadly bordered with buff; the middle and lower wing- coverts brownish-black with lighter borders and white tips, forming two well-marked bars across the wing ; quills dark brown with lighter edges, the two outer tail-quills on each side having an oblique white patch ; rump and upper tail- coverts bright bay, the feathers bordered with buff; chin black next to the bill, and, in some specimens, with an inter- rupted black line extending downwards on each side from the lower corner of the mandible, the rest of the chin and throat white, as is the whole of the lower surface beneath the bay collar, which sometimes passes into deep brown on the median line and always forms a more or less well-defined band across the upper part of the breast ; the sides of the body and flanks broadly streaked with bright bay : legs and toes flesh-coloured, claws somewhat darker. In winter the same bird has the feathers generally broadly bordered w T ith buff, so as almost entirely to conceal the deeper tints of the plumage, and, in many examples, even at the breediug-season, these borders not being entirely shed, especially from the top of the head, give the bird a very different appearance, but the characteristic colouring may always be discovered by examining the middle part of the feathers. The adult female in summer has the bill yellow : the top RUSTIC BUNTING. 33 of the head and ear-coverts brown, mottled with dark brown and buff; the lores, vertical streak, superciliary stripe and nuchal patch ochreous-white ; the bay collar narrower and duller than in the male, and the warmer tints of the whole plumage fainter except on the rump, where the bay is as bright as in the other sex. The young in autumn greatly resemble those of the Eeed- Bunting at the same season, but the tone of plumage generally is yellower, the nuchal spot is distinct, and the bay of the collar, sides of the body and the rump, even when partly concealed by the ochreous borders of the feathers, can always be detected. The nestling plumage resembles that of the old hen in the breeding- season, but the reddish tints are less bright above and entirely wanting beneath, while the whole of the lower parts from the chin to the vent is thickly streaked or spotted with dull black. The specimen in full summer-plumage here described is in the Strickland Collection of the University of Cambridge. The other examples were kindly lent to the Editor by Mr. Dresser. VOL. u. 34 PASSE RES. EMBEHIZID.E. EMBERIZIDA1. Emberiza pusilla, Pallas*. THE LITTLE BUNTING. At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London on November 8th, 1864, Mr. Gould exhibited a specimen of this species, previously unknown to Britain, which he said had been lately taken in a clap-net near Brighton (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 377). Soon afterwards Mr. Rowley furnished (Ibis, 1865, p. 113) some additional particulars of its capture, which took place on the 2nd of the month named, and, from his examination of the living bird, not only identified the species to which it belonged, but con- cluded that it had not escaped from captivity. This speci- men has since passed into the possession of Mr. Monk. AVhile like the species last described a native of the northern parts of Eastern Europe and of Asia, this small Bunting seems to be far commoner and perhaps to have a somewhat wider range in its autumnal wanderings than Emberiza rustica, as well as to be a regular instead of an occasional visitor to certain localities in Western Europe, though' it has doubtless been often overlooked in * Reisen durch verscl/iedene Froviuzen des Russischcn Reichs, iii. p. 097(1770). LITTLE BUNTING. 35 others. A hen-bird is recorded by Prof. Nilsson as having been shot near Lund in April, 1815, but there is no men- tion of the subsequent occurrence of the species in Sweden, nor of its appearance in Finland, Norway, or Denmark. Yet in Heligoland Mr. Gatke meets with one or two examples in September or October of almost every year, and, accord- ing to Prof. Schlegel, a hen was taken near Leyden, 18th November, 1842. Mr. Keulemans has informed the writer of three other examples in Holland :— the first was bought at Rotterdam in September 1862, and, after living about three months in confinement, is now in the Museum of Leyden : the second was caught by Mr. Keulemans himself in October 1862, and the third was found by him in a cage, but the owner refused to part with it. In the autumn of 1874, Mr. Labouchere caught another near Harlem. Still in Germany it is only reported from East Prussia, and it has not been observed in Belgium or Northern France. In the South, how- ever, of the country last named it is said by M. Jaubert to be the commonest of the rarer Buntings which annually con- gregate about Marseilles, and several examples have been taken in Northern Italy, where they seem for some time to have passed under the name of E. durazzii, which is now generally though not universally regarded as a synonym of E. pusilla. A pair were obtained near Vienna in 1850 by Herr Zelebor and are preserved in the Museum there. It is included by Messrs. Elwes and Buckley as a rather rare winter-visitor on the Bosphorus. Writers on European ornithology were slow to admit this species to a place in their works, and it was not until Prof. Schlegel had recorded its occurrence in Holland, as above stated, that it was recognized as a denizen of this quarter of the globe, yet it has been found to be not unfrequent by all observers of birds who have visited the north of Eussia — Prof. Lillje- borg, Herr Meves and Messrs. Alston, Harvie Brown and Seebohm. Near Archangel, say the two first of our countrymen, it is " a very common species, but apparently somewhat locally distributed. It frequents both pine-woods of large growth and thickets of underwood, but seems to 36 EMBERIZID.F. prefer young woods with a mixture of pine, fir, alder, and birch. We often heard their sweet low song, more resem- bling the warbling of some Sylvia than of an Emberiza, which was generally poured forth from the top of a tree ; they had also a low cry of alarm, which may be expressed by the words ' tick, tick, tick ' repeated at intervals of about a second. We did not find any nests, but obtained the young in several stages." Pallas, who in Dauuria discovered this species, described it as being common about the mountain- torrents and in the higher larch-woods of that country, subsequently adding willow-beds to these localities. It is there migratory but often killed by the cold. In spring it eats beetles of the family Tenebrionida. His successors in the exploration of Eastern Siberia have amplified his observations. Dr. von Middendorff found it breeding on the Boganida, where, how- ever, it was very rare and he only obtained two of its nests from which he figures three eggs. He also observed it on passage on the shore of the Sea of Ochotsk. Dr. von Schrenck found a nest on the Lower Amoor in the opening of a fir-forest. This contained five eggs, was placed on the ground between the tussocks of a swamp, and was art- lessly built of grass-stalks and larch-leaves. Prof. Radde, in the south of Eastern Siberia, obtained nearly a score of specimens, including the young and old of both sexes, but as a breeding bird it seemed to him to be rare and segregated. It was late to arrive and late to depart. In the north of China Mr. Swinhoe says it is abundant, spread- ing southward in winter. At the same season it is found over the whole extent of the Himalayas, and would seem occasionally to wander into the plains of India during the cold weather, for Jerdon who had already procured it at Darjeeling afterwards shot one near Kolassee in the Purneah district. Mr. Hodgson obtained it in Nepaul, and Prof. Adams in the North-west Provinces. The eggs are figured by Dr. von Middendorff as having an ochreous-white ground, blotched and spotted with reddish- brown and black, and measuring from -88 to '7 by from -58 LITTLE BUNTING 37 to "53 ill. A specimen in the writer's possession from Arch- angel, and attributed to this species, is coloured like a normal egg of the Lapland Bunting, and measures *71 by *57 in. The adult male in breeding plumage has the bill dark brown with the lower mandible lighter : the sides of the head, lower portion of the ear-coverts and a median streak along the top of the head, dull chestnut ; on each side of this streak is a broader stripe of deep black, which then passes downward behind the ear-coverts and encloses a small patch of buffy-w r hite ; the sides of the neck are dull white almost forming a collar, but interrupted on the nape, the feathers of which with those of the mantle, back, rump and upper wing-coverts are dark brown, bordered with light brown and chestnut ; the middle and greater wing-coverts dark brown, bordered with greyish-white and tipped with light buff, forming two light bars across the wing ; wing- and tail-quills dark brown with narrow light brown edges, except the two outer tail-quills which have each an elon- gated white patch on the inner web ; chin light chestnut becoming paler on the throat which is dull white ; breast, belly and low r er parts generally dull white with spots or streaks of dark brown forming a band across the chest continued along the sides of the body and flanks : legs, toes and claws, dark brown. The bill in this species has scarcely a trace of the palatal knob. The whole length is about five inches ; from the carpal joint to the tip of the wing two inches and three- quarters. The female much resembles the male, but the chestnut of the head is less bright, and the stripes on the same part broader and dark brown instead of black; the chin and throat are only tinged with chestnut and the pectoral band is less strongly marked. The young in autumn is very like the adult female, but the broad stripes on the head are less well defined, the margins of all the feathers above arc more rufous and there is a decidedly rufous tinge on all the lower parts from the chin to the vent. 38 PASSERES. EMBERJZ1D/E. EMBER1ZID.E. ■ Embeeiza miliaria, Linnasus*. THE BUNTING. Emberlza miliaria. The Bunting or Common Bunting, as most English writers for nearly a century bave called it — though it is by no means the commonest or the best-known of the group of birds named from it — is yet of frequent occurrence in nearly all the cultivated districts of this country, and remains here throughout the year. Being most usually observed upon arable land and especially in corn-fields, it has obtained in many parts of the kingdom the distinguishing epithet of Corn-Bunting, while in others it is only known as the Bunting-Lark. It is perhaps most numerous in the southern counties of England, but, as will presently be seen, it is also found in the extreme north and west of our islands. During spring and especially summer, this bird, the largest of the Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 308 (1766). BUNTING. 39 Buntings, and remarkable for the clumsiness of its figure, may be often seen perched by the roadside on one of the upper branches of a hedge, or on a tall weed, where it utters its droning, harsh and unmusical song, which is sometimes continued as it flies from spray to spray or lazily glides with hanging legs a short distance over the adjoining field. Though said by some authors to finish its nest about the middle or towards the end of April, in most districts it is certainly one of the latest birds to begin the business of nidification, and it seldom has eggs before the middle of May, while the time that they may be generally looked for is perhaps a month later. The nest is usually placed on or very near the ground, in a field of pease or red clover, among the stalks of which it is generally built, though it may be also found concealed in any coarse herbage or tangled briars. It is composed of straw and fibrous roots, mixed with some dry grass, and is lined with finer blades of the last material with the occasional addition of a few horsehairs. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a dull purplish-white, but often tinged with ochreous, sometimes so much so as to be altogether clay- coloured, with patches of dull lavender, specks, streaks and blotches of deep dark brown, almost black, as are some irregular lines ; the blotches are some- times sharp and well-defined, but nearly always part at least of their edges are blurred : the eggs measure from 1*04 to '9 by from *74 to *65 in. The adults feed principally on seeds and grain, for the breaking or shelling of which the palatal knob and the elevated cutting edges of the lower mandible would seem to be admirably adapted ; but it is stated by Macgillivray and some others that the Buntings swallow their food unpeeled, while Naumann on the other hand asserts the contrary. The young while nestlings are probably fed with insects, and Mr. Gould mentions having seen the adults feeding on the common cockchafer. Though living in pairs during the soring and summer, this species becomes gregarious through autumn and winter, associating in flocks with Chaffinches, Sparrows and other 40 EMBER 1711)1:. visitors to the farm-yard and barn-door for tlie sake of the grain to be there obtained. Knapp in his ' Journal of a Naturalist ' has described a case of serious injury done by this bird, having witnessed a barley-rick, standing in a detached field, entirely stripped of its thatch, which the Bunting had effected by seizing the end of the straw, and deliberately drawing it out, for the sake of any grain the ear might yet contain. That this is a common habit may well be doubted, and when indulged in the mischief is generally slight, for, as Mr. Cecil Smith remarks, in a well-built stack the straws are too closely and firmly packed to be pulled out without break- ing : but where the farmer is careless and the stacks are loosely put together, as Saxby observes is the case in Shet- land, great damage may thus ensue. This bird is said to roost generally in thick bushes, par- ticularly during the cold nights of winter ; but many of them also pass the night on the ground in stubble-fields, and being- caught with Skylarks in the nets employed for that purpose, are brought with them to market for the use of the table. The Bunting is to be found in suitable localities through- J out Great Britain, but, though less common in Scotland than in England, it reaches and breeds in the Outer Hebrides — extending even to St. Kilda — in Orkney and Shetland. Mr. Gray considers it less local in the west of Scotland than in the east, and has observed its preference for the westerly sides of islands, as in North Uist and Benbecula, where it is known by the name of " Sparrow." As first noticed by Jardine many years ago, the numbers of this species receive a considerable addition at the time of the great general migration in autumn or the beginning of winter, and speci- mens obtained out of these flocks of foreign extraction, which in Scotland do not appear to come further south than Angus, are said to be larger and more thickly- feathered than our native examples. In a less degree a like immigration is observable on the east coast of England, in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, but it does not seem to have been so commonly remarked that at the same season the species almost totally disappears from certain other localities, where in spring and BUNTING. 4 1 summer it is not uncommon, thus proving that even our homebred birds are subject to the migratory movement. In Ireland it is found throughout the island and is a permanent resident, but even there Mr. Garrett, as quoted by Thomp- son, inclines to the belief that it exhibits the same tendency, to which indeed the long-observed habit of the species, as before stated, to become gregarious in winter is but a prelude. In Norway this bird is found but in one locality, the Jsederen reef, which it would seem to have colonized from the not very distant coast of Jutland. In Sweden it is almost confined to the extreme south, being rare even near Gotten- burg, but it inhabits (Eland, though it does not seem to reach Finland. On the southern shore of the Baltic it is very common in Denmark and so continues at least as far as Livonia. In Eussia its most northern range cannot be given, but though local, it appears to be numerous in certain districts, especially towards the south. It does not penetrate to Siberia, but Dr. Dode procured it in Turkestan and De Filippi found it in all the cultivated parts of Persia. Abbott obtained it many years ago at Trebizond, and Canon Tris- tram says it is resident in Palestine and as common there as the Skylark is in England. In winter it visits Arabia Petraea and Egypt, extending its range to Nubia, where how- ever it is less often seen. Jardine had a specimen from Tunis, and it is abundant in Algeria and Morocco. Dr. Bolle found it common in the Canaries. In Portugal it would seem to be local, but in certain districts plentiful, as it is also in Southern Spain. Throughout the rest of Europe it is more or less generally dispersed, its distribution apparently depending chiefly on the fitness of the district for the growth of corn. The upper mandible has a dark brown stripe along the culmen, the remainder and the lower mandible being pale yellow-brown: irides dark hazel: the head, neck, back and upper tail-coverts, pale hair-brown, streaked longitudinally with dark brown, the dark line occupying the middle of each feather; the wing-coverts and tertials dark brown, broadly margined with pale wood-brown ; wing- and tail-quills dark VOL. II. o 42 EMBERIZHXE. brown, with lighter edges ; chin, throat, breast and lower parts of the body, dull whitish-brown, marked on the sides of the neck and on the breast with arrow-headed spots of dark brown ; the flanks streaked with dark brown : legs, toes and claws, pale yellow brown. The whole length is rather more than seven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and three-quarters : the fourth primary the longest in the wing ; the fifth a little shorter than the second. There is very little difference in the plumage of the sexes ; but some examples are deeply tinged with yellow, while British specimens are usually much darker in colour than those of the Continent, some of which, especially from eastern localities, are very pale in hue. The young greatly resemble the adults, but some difference of opinion has been expressed as to whether they are in their first plumage lighter or darker than their parents. The figures below represent the foot and skull of the Bunting, in the latter of which may be seen the palatal knob on the upper mandible, and the opposed cutting angle of the lower jaw, characteristic of most of the true Buntings. YELLOW BUNTING. /'ASSURES. 43 EM HERIZIDJi. Emberiza citrinella, Linnreus*. THE YELLOW BUNTING. Emberiza citrinella. This handsome bird is one of our commonest species, and is conspicuous, in summer particularly, by frequenting almost every hedge-row or furzy common, flying from one low tree to another, or from hush to hush, in front of the by-passer. The brilliancy of the cock's plumage might claim for the Yellow Hammerf , to use its best-known name, much greater * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 309 (1766). f In former Editions of this work the Author strove to restore what he believed to have been the first English name of this bird — Yellow Ammer. As might be expected in such a case, custom, whether right or wrong, would not give way to the proposed amendment, and Yellow Hammer, with its abbreviation Yellow Ham, have been commonly printed from the days of Turner (1544) and Merrett (1667) to the present time. There can indeed be no question of " Hammer " (in this sense) being strictly cognate with the German Ammer, but it would seem that prefixing the letter II to the word is not wholly an English peculiarity, since there is some ground for believing that Hammer, which now survives in Ham- merling, was equally with Ammer a Teutonic form. Another early spelling of this word in both languages was " Amber," used in 1668 by Charleton (Onoma- 44 EMBERIZID^E. distinction were it not everywhere so common ; and his song also, though doubtless heard with rapture by his mate, is indifferent, consisting chiefly of one note repeated five or six times in quick succession, followed by two others, the last of which is drawn out to a considerable length. Yet one can- not deny that this strain, repeated as it is, with but short intermissions, for half an hour together from the same perch, is in strict keeping with the languors of a summer's day, and, protracted to a season when nearly all other birds are silent, it inspires the human listener with interest in the performer.* No species continues its song so late in the year or so indefatigably during the heat of a cloudless day, and thus in the mind of nearly all lovers of the country the notes of the Yellow Hammer are associated with calm, bright weather, and wherever heard recal memories of sultry July or August afternoons when hardly another sound breaks the silence of the fields save the chirping of grasshoppers, and the wayfarer gladly seeks the welcome shade of a solitary tree or bush to screen him from the scorching glare of the sun. stieon Zooicon, p. 80) and by Ray in 1674 (Coll. Engl. Words, &c, p. 88). Perhaps the parent form was the old German Embritz, whence comes the Latin- ized modification Emberiza, spelt by some ancient authors Embriza. Mr. Skeat, in a communication kindly made on this point to the Editor, remarks that the letter h is seldom wrongly prefixed, and cites among the few examples of the practice "hermit," "horde" and "humbles" — the roots of which are probably eremila, ordu and umbilicus respectively. Mr. J. W. Cartmell has added to these words " hogshead," which ought to have been " oxhead," from the Dutch ochshood, and " howlet " instead of " owlet " — the last being almost an exact parallel to " Hammer" in the present bird's name. Dr. Robert Latham's assertion (Diet. Engl. Lang. ii. p. 1432) that "the derivation is the A.S. huma =skin, clothing, covering " seems to be wholly unsupported by evidence. * The character of the Yellow Hammer's song has naturally led to its being often syllabled, and in England one rendering of it, which has several local variations, is "Little bit o' bread and no cheese." In Scotland no such humorous version is current, and there its interpretation, according to Mac- gillivray, is " Deil, deil, deil tak ye " (i.e., ye who would rob the nest). This form of imprecation seems to be connected in the mind of North Britons with a strange superstition that the Yellow Yoldring, as they most frequently call the bird, is on very familiar terms with the Evil One, who is supposed on a May morning to supply it among other odd dainties with half a drop of his own blood, the effect of which is somehow to produce the curious markings on its eggs to be presently described. YELLOW BUNTING. 45 Under such circumstances the Yellow Hammer's drowsy strain is far from inharmonious. But it is not only at this period of the year that his song is heard. Towards the end of January or early in February almost any gleam of sun- shine will awaken his vocal powers, and as he sits aloft to catch its first or last rays his simple melody attracts the ear until with advancing spring it is drowned in the full burst of song. The Yellow Bunting is generally a late breeder, seldom laying its eggs till the middle of April, while they have been found unhatched even in September (Zool. s.s. p. 1132). The nest is most frequently placed upon or very near the ground, sheltered by a bush, in a hedge-bottom or on the side of a grass-grown bank ; and the moss, roots and hair of which it is composed are usually well put together. Ex- ceptions to all these points however occasionally happen. Mr. Blackwall, many years since, noticed (Zool. Journ. v. p. 12) the fact, which came under his own observation, of a hen-bird of this species laying her eggs on the bare ground, in which situation she sat upon them till they were hatched ; and Salmon mentions (Nat. ii. p. 274) his having found a nest, in 1834, at the extraordinary elevation of seven feet from the ground, placed among the branches of a broom-plant, which, though naked at the bottom, had a close, thick head. The eggs are of a pale purplish-white, streaked or veined with very dark irregular lines of reddish-purple, almost black, in addition to which there are often a few spots of the same, which occasionally are greatly diffused over the whole surface, and the eggs may then be sai.d to be clouded with dull reddish-purple : some patches of lavender are also at times present. The eggs measure from "96 to *74 by from •68 to '58 in. The male is remarkable for his attentions to his mate, and has been said to take his turn upon the eggs during the period of incubation ; while Neville Wood mentions having heard him sing when thus engaged. The young are generally ready to leave the nest within a fort- night after the time of being hatched ; but if often visited 46 EMBERIZID.E. before the} 7 are able to fly, their fears induce them to quit their discovered retreat a few days sooner. They are fed mainly if not entirely on insects, which in summer seem to form the chief sustenance of the adults * ; but as autumn approaches they do great service to the agriculturist by consuming the seeds of many noxious weeds, those of the various species of Arenarla, Stellaria and Polygonum in particular. In winter this species is gregarious, flocking with Chaffinches, Greenfinches and other birds, to stack-yards, and at that season it will readily feed on grain, though smaller seeds, which slovenly husbandmen have so often to carry home with the corn, are nearly always the object of its especial search. Sometimes the Yellow Hammer, like the Bunting, will pass the night on the ground ; but in very cold weather the shelter of thick bushes and evergreen shrubs forms its favourite resort at roosting time. In Italy great numbers of this species are caught, with Ortolans, and fattened for the purpose of the table. Of the countries inhabited by the Yellow Bunting, it may be sufficient to say that it is a common resident throughout most parts of Great Britain, in the eastern counties regularly receiving an addition to its numbers towards winter, and is even found in the Outer Hebrides. It has been known to breed in Orkney, though not in Shetland, but in the latter it is often seen, and in both groups of islands it most fre- quently appears in winter. In Ireland it is common in suitable localities, and, according to Thompson, is resident. It is hitherto unrecorded from the Freroes or Iceland, but in continental Scandinavia it occurs, and is by no means rare, so far to the northward as the Alten valley, and it has been seen with its young, by Pastor Sommerfelt, on the Tana. But in these high latitudes it would appear to be chiefly an autumn-visitor, and though its nest has several times been found in the Muonioniska district, Wolley was satisfied that * On one occasion the Editor observed an old bird of this species busily engaged with a large Sphinx which was more than it could master, and on his approach it left its prey mangled in the road ; but generally insects of a more manageable size are undoubtedly preferred. YELLOW BUNTING. 47 the majority of examples observed and obtained by bim came from tbe eastward towards tbe end of summer. At tbat season it is very common in tbe interior of Finland, and it even winters, according to Dr. Malmgren, at Kajana. It is found abundantly near Archangel, and is more generally distributed than any of its congeners on the islands and coasts of the White Sea. About Lake Ladoga also it is resident. In Western Siberia it would seem to be common, though to a great extent migratory, yet Prof. Eadde found that it came to the Jenesei in winter, and especially observed it near Krasnoiarsk, in November. Prof. Brandt names it as occurring in the Eastern Altai. According to Dr. Severzov it appears, but rarely, on the river Daria in Turkestan in winter. De Filippi did not meet with it in Persia : it is included among the birds of the Caucasus, and Messrs. Dickson and Eoss procured it at Erzeroom in spring. At Constantinople it is said to be very numerous in winter, but it is not recorded from Greece, Palestine or Egypt. It is found throughout Italy, but it seems to breed only in the northern uplands and is scarce in the south as well as in Sicily and Sardinia. It does not even breed in the south of France, and though said by Loche to do so in Algeria no example seems to have occurred to any other ornithologist in that country. Col. Irby says that he has neither seen nor heard of it on either shore of the Straits of Gibraltar, but according to MM. Webb and Berthelot it inhabits Tene- riffe : Mr. Godman however did not meet with it on any of the Atlantic Islands. Its appearance in Portugal has not yet been substantiated, and in Spain its distribution seems to be limited, while in the southern parts of that country it is said to be only an occasional winter-visitor. Within the boundaries thus vaguely drawn, however, it is almost every- where a common and, from its bright plumage and confident habits, a well-known bird, as testified by the very large number of local names which it enjoys throughout Europe. The adult male in summer has the upper mandible (which bears a well-developed palatal knob) brown, the lower man- dible of a bluish horn-colour: the irides dark brown : the head, 48 EMBERIZID.E. and a patch on the nape, bright gamboge-yellow, varied with dusky streaks on the forehead and lores, behind the crown and on the boundary of the ear-coverts ; mantle and sides of the neck, olive tinged with orange ; upper part of the back and wings dark brown, each feather broadly edged with brownish-orange ; primaries dusky black, with narrow outer edges of bright yellow ; secondaries, tertials and wing- coverts, dusky black, broadly margined with rich chestnut- brown ; upper tail-coverts chestnut, edged with yellow ; tail dusky black, the middle quills broadly bordered with chest- nut and the rest narrowly edged with yellow, the two outer pairs (which are slightly shorter than those next to them) having also an elongated white patch on the inner web ; the chin and throat bright gamboge-yellow with an almost con- tinuous line of dusky chestnut descending on each side from the lower corner of the mandible ; breast and flanks clouded and longitudinally streaked with chestnut, which on the latter passes into dark brown ; the rest of the lower parts bright gamboge-yellow, except the lower surface of the quills which is grey : legs, toes and claws light brown. In winter the bright yellow, especially on the head, is much obscured by dusky mottlings ; but at all times of the year the males are subject to much variation in the brilliancy and purity of their tints. In some examples the head is of a straw or primrose colour, while in others, especially from the south of Europe, the hue increases in intensity so as to become almost orange. It has seemed to the Editor that Dorsetshire specimens are more brightly coloured than any others he has observed in the British Islands. The whole length of the bird is seven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and a half ; the second, third, fourth and fifth primaries nearly equal in length, but the fourth rather the longest, while the sixth is a quarter of an inch shorter than the fifth. The female is much less yellow than the male, and the yellow is of a paler hue ; her head, throat and breast are much more mottled, and her colours generally are much less vivid. YELLOW BUNTING. 49 The young have no yellow on the head till after their first auturnn-moult, and the prevailing colour of the upper parts is a dull olive streaked with dusky black, the small wing- coverts and tertials together with some of the feathers of the back being also tipped with greyish-white. After their first moult the males have the yellow much mixed with dusky spots : the bright yellow in very old males appears to extend over a larger surface than in those which are younger. As remarked by Macgillivray of this species, and the observation seems to hold good with all the European members of the family Emberizida, the changes which take place in the plumage during winter and spring are due to the wearing off of the long margins of the feathers and to the fading of their brighter colours. He goes on to deny the generally-received opinion that birds assume richer tints in the breeding-season, but though literally he may be right as regards the species of the present group and some others, he is only so when we limit the meaning of his words to its strictest bounds. The rich tints are indeed there, but they are obscured by the overlapping of the dull-coloured margins of the feathers, and it is not until these margins are shed that the full beauty of the bright hues is revealed. X VOL. II. 50 PASSERES. EMBER1ZID.E. EMBERIZID^E. Emberiza cirlus, Linnasus*. THE CIRL-BUNTING. Emberiza cirlus. Although this bird was thought by Montagu, who first added its name to the British catalogue, to be restricted to our most westerly counties — Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, it has since been found to possess a much wider range through- out the south of England. It was discovered by him near Kingsbridge in the winter of 1800, among flocks of Yellow Buntings and Chaffinches, from which he obtained several specimens of both sexes, as almost simultaneously recorded by himself and Latham. In the following summer it was found breeding in Devonshire, and an account of the mode by which he successfully reared the young, and of their habits • Syst. Nat. Ed 12, i. p. 311 (1766). CIRL-BUNTING. 51 in confinement, was communicated to the Linnean Society by Montagu (Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. pp. 276-280). The Girl-Bunting is generally found near the south coast, and with us is everywhere very local. In most of its habits it resembles the Yellow Bunting, but is more shy and un- obtrusive, and even where it is pretty plentiful is far less easily observed from its chiefly frequenting the tops of higher trees, particularly elms, whence the male may be heard singing, and some patience is often required to obtain a sight of the bird upon the upper branch of a tall, leafy tree. The song is tremulous and resembles that of the commoner species, but is uttered rather more quickly, and wants the long final note, so that no one once acquainted with it ought to mistake it. It is more habitually delivered in the afternoon than at any other time of the day, and is continued till the middle or end of August, or even later. The female has but a single call-note. The nest is generally composed of bents, placed in situations similar to those chosen by the Yellow Bunting, and is seldom far from the clump or row of elms which the male affects while singing. In structure it often varies, some examples being chiefly built of green moss lined with hair, while others are lined with fibrous roots. The eggs are four or five in number, of a dull white, tinged with bluish-grey, spotted, blotched and veined with dark liver-brown, almost black, the markings being mostly very well defined, and among them are generally patches of pale lavender; they measure from -96 to *8 by from '67 to "61 in. The young when hatched are supplied by the parents almost solely with grasshoppers, and the discovery of this fact ensured Montagu's success in treating those which he took from the nest. More recently several old birds were observed, near Brading in the Isle of Wight, to feed con- stantly on the berries of the woody nightshade, Solaiium dulcamara; and a paste made of these, mixed with wheat, flour and fine gravel, proved excellent food for some of the young, which were reared without difficulty. Blyth in the course of some admirable notes on the habits of this bird (Nat. ii. p. 342), states that he has found the remains of 52 EMBER1ZID.E. beetles in its stomach, but that towards harvest-time it feeds principally on wheat. In winter, when it resorts to the stacks, though not much in company with other species, it eats almost any small seeds, and is especially, as he was informed, fond of those of sorrel. At the same season also Mr. Knox noticed its partiality for hay-seeds. Since Montagu's discovery of this species in the south- west of England, it has been found to breed regularly along the coast of the Channel so far as Rye, but is less numerous and more local towards the east. Inland it is known to breed in the counties of Surrey, Middlesex, Buckingham, Berks, Wilts, Gloucester, "Warwick, Worcester and Hereford, but in nearly all of them save Surrey and Wiltshire it would seem to be confined to a very few spots, and perhaps even in those not to breed regularly every year. Its peculiarly sporadic distribution in the breeding-season deserves far greater attention than has yet been paid thereto, and at present its preference for certain localities is wholly unac- countable. Even to guess at the cause many more precise observations than have ever been made are required. In some parts of its range it seems only to frequent the southern slopes of the Downs, or the adjoining seaboard, but then again we find it, and not so very unfrequently, a long way from such districts. There appears to be a possibility of its range having extended since the last century, for it can hardly be supposed to have occupied Selborne in Gilbert White's days without coming under his observation ; yet he assuredly never noticed it, though Blyth in 1837 found it plentiful about Alton which is close by, and even heard two examples singing at Selborne itself, where just ten years afterwards Prof. Bell ascertained that it bred. In winter some few stray from their ordinary haunts and have been taken or observed near London and Oxford, in Bedfordshire (Zool. s.s. p. 25G2), Norfolk, Northamptonshire (according to Lord Lilford), Shropshire (Zool. p. 9780), Sherwood Forest, near Doncaster (Nat. ii. p. 164) and York (as Mr. Thomas Allis notified to this work), and at least twice in the North Riding near Bedale and Richmond (Zool. p. 3050). CIRL-BUNTING. 53 Mr. E. Gray says that a specimen was shot near Yetbolra in Roxburghshire about 1840, and one near Banchory in Aber- deenshire in December 1863, while Mr. Edward notices the occurrence of one in Banffshire (Zool. p. 6598), and the shooting of one near Edinburgh was announced by the late Prof. James Wilson so long ago as 1816 (Mem. Wern. Soc. ii. p. 658). In Ireland its presence has been recorded at Wexford by Mr. Blake Knox (Zool. s.s. p. 95). The Cirl-Bunting is most numerous in the southern parts of Europe, and apart from Great Britain the most northern limit it has reached seems to be Heligoland, where it is known to have once occurred. In Belgium and Holland it is rare, but it is said to be plentiful in the valleys of the Moselle and the Rhine, and thence across to Thuringia and Moravia. It has been obtained both in Bohemia and Transsylvania, but is evidently scarce in each. In Turkey it becomes more common, and is resident, which is not the case with it in Central Europe, and though it only occurs rarely on the steppes of Southern Russia it is plentiful in the Crimea — especially on the mountains of its southern coast. Further to the eastward we know it not ; but Strickland met with it at Smyrna, where it appeared to him to take the place of the Yellow-Bunting. In Greece also it occurs, chiefly as a winter-visitant from the North, but Col. Drum- mond-Hay found it breeding in Crete, though it was not very abundant there. It is common in Sicily and is widely dispersed throughout Italy and Switzerland. It occasionally visits Malta in autumn, but in Algeria is common in such localities as suit it and breeds in that country. According to Capt. von Homeyer it also inhabits the Balearic Isles ; and is said by Col. Irby to be very frequent on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. In Portugal it is plentiful all the year round, and it seems to be pretty generally distributed in Spain. In France it is most abundant in the south, and but seldom breeds in the northern departments. Such is a brief and necessarily imperfect sketch of the distribution of this species, to describe which properly would no doubt require a personal knowledge of almost every district, for, when we 54 EMBERIZID.E. regard England alone we find that one should be acquainted with nearly each parish in the southern and the western-mid- land counties in order to define with accuracy the localities it frequents, and doubtless the same extraordinary eclecticism is exhibited by the species abroad. The adult male in summer has the bill bluish lead-colour, the palatal knob being well developed : the irides hazel : the top of the head, the lores and a stripe behind each eye dark olive, streaked with black ; two more stripes, of bright lemon-yellow, run on each side of the head, the one from the nostril over the eye, and the other from the gape under the eye to the middle of the ear-coverts, the rest of which with the nape and sides of the neck are dark olive ; back and scapulars rich chestnut-brown, some of the feathers having a median patch of dark brown, primaries and secondaries dusky black, with very narrow yellowish edges ; upper and smaller wing-coverts dull brown tipped with lighter brown, the larger wing-coverts, with the tertials, dusky black, each feather being broadly margined with chestnut ; upper tail-coverts yellowish-olive, streaked with dusky grey ; tail blackish-brown, the middle pair of quills tinged with rufous, the two outer pairs with a large oblique patch of white on the inner web and the outermost pair with the basal two-thirds of the inner web yellowish-white ; chin and throat black ; below the black a crescentic patch of bright lemon- yellow, the ends of which reach to the lower side of the dark ear-coverts ; upper part of the breast dull olive, bounded below by an almost continuous chestnut band, which is narrowest in the middle ; belly and lower tail-coverts dull yellow, flanks pale dingy olive, streaked with dark brown ; lower surface of the quills grey, slightly tinged with yellow: legs, toes and claws, light brown. In winter the colours are less bright generally, and the black feathers of the head and throat have light margins. The whole length of the male is six inches and a half. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and a half : the second, third, fourth and fifth primaries are nearly equal in length, but the third is usually the longest CIRL-BUNTING. 55 in the wing, and the sixth is fully one-eighth of an inch shorter than the fifth. The female wants the black and the bright yellow stripes on the head and throat, having but a pale yellow line over the eye ; the upper surface of the head and body is streaked longitudinally with black on the dull olive of the one and the reddish-brown of the other ; the lower surface of the body is similarly streaked with black on a dull and dingy yellow. Young birds very closely resemble adult females, but all trace of yellow is wanting, and the plumage generally has a tinge of buff. English naturalists are greatly indebted to Montagu for his careful and patient investigation of various subjects, and extreme exactness of observation, which enabled him to produce several valuable communications, and make many interesting additions to British Zoology. His discrimination of the species of Harrier which, both here and on the Con- tinent, now bears his name has been already briefly men- tioned (vol. i. page 138), and must always be regarded as a fact of great interest and importance, while his other ornithological discoveries, hardly if at all inferior to it, will be duly recorded in the progress of this work. It may be remarked that they are nearly all of a very different land from those which nowadays pass as such — the recognition, namely, more by accident than by anything else, of various birds of foreign origin which from time to time visit these islands. Montagu perhaps stands alone in one curious par- ticular. Being essentially a British naturalist it was his fortune to be the first to describe an exotic species, the American Bittern, from an example which had strayed, as the species still occasionally strays, to England. His ' Ornithological Dictionary' remains an enduring monument of his labours, though the alphabetical arrangement of the work and the want of any systematic key to it impairs its utility to beginners. A list of his many publications may be found in several bibliographical works, and a brief memoir of their author, who died June 20th, 1815, in 56 EMBERIZID.E. his sixty-first year,* by Mr. Cunnington, has appropriately appeared in the ' Wiltshire Magazine ' for 1857 (iii. pp. 87—94), since Col. Montagu was a native of that county, in which his family had long been seated. During the latter part of his life however he resided in Devonshire, where he, as above stated, discovered that the present species, hitherto only known to inhabit the continent, was a native of England, and the vignette here introduced is a representation of Knowle Cottage, situated about half a mile from Kingsbridge, at which Montagu lived for many years. For the opportunity of presenting this memorial of an English Zoologist, I feel myself greatly indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Robert Holdsworth, of Brixham, who supplied me with the sketch from which the woodcut was prepared. * In the * Gentleman's Magazine' for 1815 (Ixxxv. pt. 2, p. 281) it is stated that Montagu died on the 28th of August and in his sixty- fourth year, but the Editor learns from Mr. Cunnington (through the kindness of their common friend Mr. A. C. Smith) that the authority for the date and age here given in the text rests upon a manuscript by Montagu's daughter, Mrs. Crawford, and may therefore well be trusted. PASSE RES. ORTOLAN'. 57 EMBEHI/.l D.F. Emberiza hortulana, Linnseus*. THE ORTOLAN. Emberiza hortulana. The Ortolan, or Green -beaded Bunting, as it was called when described and figured in 1776 by Brown in his ' Illus- trations of Zoology' (p. 74, pi. 30), from a living specimen taken in Marylebone Fields, and then in the possession of Mr. Moon in Hyde Park, is a bird that for many years caused great confusion in the minds of English ornithologists. The example, just mentioned, when it died, was given to Tunstall (Synops. Newc. Mus. p. 68) from whose collection Latham (Gen. Synops. B. ii. p. 211) again described it, with- out knowing its history, and upon bis redescription, Gmeliri, in 1788, founded his Emberiza chlorocephala (Syst. Nat. i. Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. i>. 309 (17CG). VOL. II. 58 EMBERIZIDJE. p. 887) while Latham two years later (Ind. Orn. i. p. 418) named it E. tunstalli. This specimen being fortunately well preserved, still exists, with what remains of Tunstall's collection, in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and on January 15th, 1828, was exhibited by Mr. Fox to the Lin- neau Society (Trans, Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 752), when it proved to be identical with the well-known E. hortulana of Lin- naeus. In May 1822, another specimen, now also in the same museum, was caught on board a collier, a few miles off the Yorkshire coast, and having been obtained by Mr. Fox (Synops. Newc. Mus. p. 69), formed the subject of Bewick's woodcut of this species,* while, in November 1827, a fine male was killed near Manchester (Zool. Journ. iii. p. 498), and having passed into the possession of the Author of this work was figured by Selby. In the winter of 1836-37 another male was netted near London, and deposited in the Zoological Gardens, as recorded by Blyth (Mag. Nat. Hist. N. Ser. i. p. 441). On April 29th, 1841, a fine specimen, now in the possession of Mr. Borrer (Ann. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 524), was shot on the viaduct of the London and Brighton Railway, near the Brighton station ; and a male was shot April 27th, 1852, between Lancing and Worthing (Zool. p. 3476). The appearance in England of several other examples of the Ortolan has since been recorded. One was killed in Scilly early in October 1851 (Zool. p. 3277), and one is said to have occurred in the Isle of Wight in 1867 (Zool. s.s. p. 912). An immature male killed near Shoreham is in Mr. Knox's collection ; one was limed at Brighton Septem- ber 30th, 1870 (Zool. s.s. p. 2383), and another is said to have been taken there early in May of the following year (Zool. s.s. 2682). Lord Clifton believes he saw one at Cobham in Kent April 10th, 1866 (Zool. s.s. p. 270) ; three are said by Capt. Kennedy on Mr. Sharpe's authority to have been shot at Cookham, while as many are mentioned by Mr. Harting as having been caught at Kilburn in Mid- * Bewick adds that about the same time a pair were seen in the garden at Clierryburn, on the banks of the Tyne. ORTOLAN. 59 dlesex, of which one is in Mr. Bond's collection. An adult male was obtained May 5th, 1859, at Lowestoft (Zool. p. 6602). It has been stated that in the summer of 1838 one was killed at Earlham in Norfolk ; in April 1866 one is said to have been netted at Yarmouth in the same county, and in 1871, six examples were sent to London from that place, which were said to have been caught there on May 5th (Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc. 1871-72, p. 62). Two of these were placed in the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Bond (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 775), and two were in Mr. R. H. Gurney's possession. Further northward an example was seen by Mr. J. C. Atkinson on the Guisborough Moors, in Cleveland, 16th August, 1863 (Zool. p. 8768). In Scot- land Mr. R. Gray mentions one killed not later than 1836, in Caithness, and two in November, 1863, near Aberdeen. In Ireland evidence of the occurrence of the species is wanting. The Ortolan is only a summer-visitor to Europe, and the examples which have been met with in Great Britain, if they have appeared voluntarily, which in several instances may perhaps be doubted,* must have strayed from the wonted course of the species which hardly takes in the west or north of France; but considering the high northern latitude which it attains — breeding, as it does, in Norway every year so far as Throndjem, and occasionally according to HH. Palmen and Sahlberg so far as Muonioniska on the frontiers of Sweden and Finland — one may perhaps be rather surprised that more examples have not been recognized in this country. Still the remarkably local distribution of the Ortolan through- * This species is every spring imported in great numbers into England for the table, and it is unquestionable that some examples may occasionally get loose. Tnnstall imagined that his bird had escaped from a cage, which was not so likely at that time as a similar case would be now. Ulyth mentions (Mag. Nat. Hist. N.S. i. p. 441) that live Ortolans were first brought to the London market in the spring of 1837, and that they came from Prussia. Of late years those we have the opportunity of eating are said to come from Holland, but possibly they have been caught in Germany and sent down the Rhine to Rotter- dam for exportation. As Myth's statement is do doubt to be trusted, specimens obtained in or about Britain prior to 1837 may be fairly deemed free from the taint that attaches to those suspected of being escaped prisoners. 60 EMBERIZIDjE. out Europe, which is hardly less extraordinary than that of the preceding species, may account in some measure for its scarcity in our island. Its affection for certain spots renders any attempt to treat of its distribution not only difficult but, for want of sufficiently precise information, almost futile. Its presence or absence cannot as yet be connected with any known peculiarity of geological formation, soil or crops. It was long ago said in France, and apparently with truth, to prefer wine-growing districts and to spread as these were extended, though it certainly does not feed upon grapes. But it is found equally in countries where vineyards are unknown, and is then a denizen of corn-fields and of the fences or hedges, if such there he, that surround them, so that the real cause of its partiality for either kind of agri- culture remains to he discovered. Even so near to us as Holland it has been said by several authors to be rare, but the Editor knows that in some parts of that country, and especially near Valkenswaerd, it must be plentiful, from the number of eggs he has received thence. It would also seem that there are districts in which it is abundant in one year and in another almost wanting, and a misconception of this perhaps has given rise to the belief entertained by some that it is a species which is extending its range. Found sporadically throughout Germany it does not seem to penetrate further into Russia than its south-western Governments, and whether it is to be deemed an inhabitant of the Asiatic territories of that power depends chiefly on the value assigned to the distinguishing characters of a nearly-allied form — the Emberiza shah* of Bonaparte, which, originally described from Persia, reaches the river Obi in summer, retreating in winter to India. The true Ortolan however seems to be abundant in the Caucasus and to reach Elburz. It is said also to have been found at Erzeroom and is possibly spread throughout Asia Minor. In Palestine it is very abundant and breeds. In Egypt it is a bird-of-passage, and in winter : This seems to be identical with the A', cerruiii of De Filippi, and whether both aames may not also be synonyms of A', buchemani, the ordinary Indian form, the Editor lias no means "I' ascertaining. ORTOLAN. 61 is very plentiful in Abyssinia, where it may possibly also stay to breed. We have no record of its occurrence on the intermediate part of Africa till we reach Algeria, where according to Loche it inhabits the Sahel ; but other ex- plorers of that country have not encountered it. Tyrwhitt Drake found it in summer at Tangiers, and Favier, as quoted by Col. Irby, states that it is very abundant there, but the last never met with it very near Gibraltar, though it is plentiful enough about Seville and in other parts of Spain. In Portugal it seems to have been recognized but once — near Coimbra. Throughout the rest of the European con- tinent, always excepting the western and northern portions of France, and the eastern and northern portions of Russia, the Ortolan occurs in general terms . pretty univer- sally, but as before stated the universality of its distribution is so much interrupted as to render it sporadic at least in the breeding- season, for during its migrations it is fre- quently found in places to which it is at other times a stranger. Hoy, in a communication to this work, says of the habits of this species in Flanders that " it makes its appearance at the beginning of May, and almost immediately pairs and commences building; its monotonous chirping notes are heard the whole day long. These birds prefer light sandy soils, and build invariably on the ground in fields of corn — at least I never met with a nest in any other situation : those I found were placed in a slight hollow, were something similar to the nest of the Skylark, but rather more compact ; the interior lined with fine grass and a few hairs ; the eggs are from four to six in number." They ordinarily measure from '85 to "72 by from *66 to '58, but occasionally not more than "6I by "55 in., and have a purplish- or reddish-white ground, spotted and blotched, but rarely veined, with very dark liver-brown — almost black, and sometimes with patches of dull lavender and brownish-red. In Central Germany the Ortolan is said to haunt the beds of willows and alders that grow on the edges of low-lying ground, but not to frequent marshy spots themselves. It fi'2 EMBERIZID.E. is rather of a retiring disposition, the cock only shewing himself openly, while the hen must be sought to be seen. The song has some resemblance to that of the Yellow Hammer, but, though its first syllables have a strong metallic ring, it is less loud and on the whole more plaintive. The traveller in early summer in Norway, and probably the same is true with regard to Sweden and Finland, sees the Ortolan frequently by the roadside, sitting on the rough fences of split deal, so characteristic of Scandinavian agricul- ture, which enclose every plot of cleared land, or occasionally shifting its position to the roof of some log-hut ; and the peasant of those countries trusts no bird so fully as a herald of warm and settled weather. Thus its far from melodious notes have a charm for him which dwellers in more temper- ate climates can scarcely appreciate. From the wdiole of Europe this bird retires as soon as the breeding-season is over, its southward return beginning of course soonest in the north, and when approaching the shores of the Mediterranean it collects in large flocks. On both of its migratory journeys it is eagerly sought by bird-catchers, and enormous num- bers are netted and fattened for the table. It lends itself easily to their designs, for it is caught without much trouble, and seems to surpass all its congeners in the greediness with which it devours the food, chiefly oats and millet, set before it in captivity, until its body becomes coated with a thick layer of fat, only interrupted by a narrow line along the keel of the sternum. The flavour of the delicate morsel it then presents is almost proverbial. Its natural diet con- sists as' much of insects — beetles of the family Curculionidfe especially — as of grain or other seeds. The adult male in summer has the bill reddish-brown, the palatal knob small : the irides brown : head and nape greenish-grey, sometimes the one and sometimes the other tint prevailing, and occasionally streaked along the crown with dusky-brown ; the orbits light yellow ; the feathers on the back very dark brown along the shaft, but rufous on each side passing into olive near the edge ; small upper wing- coverts wood-brown with paler edges; primaries and second- ORTOLAN. 63 aries dusky, with a very narrow light-coloured outer margin, in some examples rufous in others yellow ; tertials and larger wing-coverts blackish-brown with broad rufous or ochreous edges ; upper tail-coverts wood-brown with obscure dusky streaks ; tail-quills blackish-brown, the middle pair broadly aud the rest narrowly edged with ochreous, and the two* outer pairs with an oblique white patch on the inner web ; the chin and throat yellowish-green, in some examples passing into olive-grey on the upper part of the breast, in others only becoming paler, with dusky arrow-headed spots ; the rest of the lower parts reddish-buff, deepest on the breast and palest near the vent ; flanks tinged with wood-brown ; inner wing-coverts aud axillaries, pale greyish-white, often tinged with yellow, and the former mottled with dusky : legs, toes and claws, pale brownish-orange. The whole length is six inches and one quarter. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and a half : the second, third and fourth primaries nearly equal, and the longest in the wing ; the fifth considerably shorter than the fourth. The female usually has the head greyer, and more dis- tinctly streaked with brown ; immediately behind the nostril is a pale ochreous patch ; the chin and throat paler, with a distinct line of dusky spots running from the base of the lower mandible on each side ; the upper part of the breast clouded and mottled with dusky brown, and the reddish- buff below, as well as the tints of the plumage generally, less vivid ; but other females are said to differ but little, except in paler coloration, from some of the males. Young birds of the year resemble the female in her ordinary plumage, but the yellow tints on the head seem In be brighter, and the spots on the breast are more distinct. * Mr. Borrer's specimen, above mentioned, was said to have tad the three outer pairs so marked. Unfortunately it has since been accidentally destroyed. 64 PASSERES. EMBERIZID/E. EMBERIZIDAL EUSPIZA MELANOCEPHALA (Scopoli*). THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. Euspiza, Bonapartef. — Bill hard, straight, conical, rather long and powerful ; mandibles about equal in size, their edges but slightly inflected and sinuated ; the palate almost smooth. Nostrils oval, basal and placed somewhat near the culmen, but quite clear of the feathers. Gape angular. Wings rather long : first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting ; second, third and fourth nearly equal and one of them the longest in the wing. Tail rather long and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front and at the lower part of the sides, which are elsewhere covered by an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge behind, rather longer than the middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of the hind toe of moderate length. This is the third species of Bunting whose first appear- ance in England it has been Mr. Gould's fortune to bring to the notice of ornithologists. He states (Ibis, 1869, p. 128) that a very fine old female specimen was submitted to him by Mr. Robert Brazener of Brighton, who had shot it on the racecourse near that town about November 3rd, 18G8, Avhilc it was following a flock of Yellow Hammers. * Emberiza rnelanoceyphala, Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-Naturalis, p. 142 (1700). t Supplemento alio Specchio comparative delle Ornitologie di Roma e Fila- delfia, p. 10 (1832). BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 65 Unlike the two other species of the family admitted to this work in the present Edition, that which is now under consideration is far from possessing a high northern range, and its claims to recognition as a " British Bird " are of the slightest. Still the fact that it has reached Heligoland, where Mr. Gatke has obtained three specimens in as many successive years (Ibis, 1875, p. 183), favours the possibility of its voluntary appearance in England, though the season of the year at which the example recorded by Mr. Gould occurred proves that it must have been a chance wanderer, for even in the south-east of Europe it is only a summer- visitant and in the south-west it seems never to shew itself. The Heligoland birds were met with at the end of May or in June. It is said to have been taken some six or seven times near Marseilles, all the examples but one, which was procured in autumn, being obtained in April or May. Ac- cording to Dr. Salvadori and others it is not of frequent occurrence in Italy, though it is captured almost every year in Liguria, has been discovered breeding in the Veronese province and is still less rare in Venetia, no doubt passing over from Dalmatia, which has long been known as a country in which it is abundant. Further to the southward it has been once obtained at Bimini, once in Sicily and occasionally, according to Mr. Wright, in Malta. Several examples are said to have been killed near Vienna,* and one in Bohemia, while its occurrence near Kiev in Russia has been recorded. Turning to the south-east the bird becomes abundant in Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, whence it retires on the approach of winter to the North-west Provinces of India and the Deccan, where it is found in immense flocks. Though a summer-visitant to the Cycladcs, Crete, Cyprus and Palestine, it is unknown in Egypt, or for the matter of that in any part of Africa. This species is said by Canon Tristram to have in Palestine nothing in its habits and appearance to recall the true Buntings, but on the other hand Mr. Robson in a * Naumann had infonnati E a male, said fco have been shot near Leipzig, but was unable to satisfy himself of its truth (Yog. Deutsch. iv. p. '2-U, note). VOL. II. K 66 EMBERIZIDyE. communication to Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, describes them on the Bosphorus as being similar to those of the great Bunting, and in its manner of flying from one elevated post to another, with its legs hanging down, the likeness is obvious. Its song is said to be agreeable, and its nest to be a compact structure, lined with fibres and hairs, and placed either on the ground or in a low bush, often, accord- ing to Col. Drummond-Hay, on the stump of an old vine. The eggs, generally six in number, are quite unlike those of any known species of Emberiza, being of a pale greenish- white, speckled with light ash-colour and dull olive, besides a few patches of dusky lavender. They measure from *9 to *8 by from *64 to '61 in. This species seems to subsist almost entirely upon grain, in which respect it departs from most of the normal Ember'izidce, and it is said to do considerable damage to growing crops, though probably the young are fed with insects. The adult male, in summer, has the upper mandible dark grey, the lower, horn-coloured : the irides hazel : the head and ear-coverts are deep black, traces of the brown edging of the feathers in winter being however often visible ; nape, sides of the breast, back scapulars, least wing-coverts and rump, bright orange-brown or light bay ; wings hair-brown, the middle and lower wing-coverts being broadly, and the flight-feathers narrowly, edged with brownish-white ; tail almost uniform hair-brown ; chin and the whole of the lower parts, bright gamboge-yellow, which extends under and behind the ear-coverts towards the nape so as almost to form a collar : legs, toes and claws yellowish-brown. In winter the bright colours of the upper parts are almost entirely hidden by the dull brown edging of the feathers, and those of the back shew a dark brown shaft-stripe ; the yellow of the lower parts is also clouded by the feathers being tipped with ash-colour. The brilliant hues are how- ever always perceptible at the base on examination. In the adult female the black of the head is replaced by dark brown feathers with broad edges of a lighter shade, having a yellowish tinge ; the mantle and rump are of BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 67 much the same colour as in the male, but the middle of the back, scapulars and least wing-coverts are very much duller and the feathers streaked with dark brown along the shaft ; the quills of the wings and tail are as in the male ; beneath, the chin and throat are dull white slightly tinged with yellow, passing on the breast into pale buffy-brown in- termixed with yellow ; sides of the breast patched with bay ; belly pale dull brown mingled with yellow, especially in the middle ; lower tail-coverts dirty yellow. The whole length of the male is about six inches and four-fifths ; the wing measures three inches and three- quarters : the second primary is slightly longer than the third or fourth and is consequently the longest in the wing. The female is a little smaller. The separation of this species from the genus Emberiza seems to be advisable, its straight and powerful bill, almost devoid of any palatal knob, its essentially granivorous habit and the character of its eggs affording fair grounds for so doing ; and it is worthy of remark that it was not referred to that genus by either of the two distinguished Russian naturalists who treated of it many years ago — Giildenstadt (N. Comm. Ac. Petrop. xix. p. 466) making it a Tanagra, and Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. i. p. 428) a Xanthornus, or, as we should now say, an Icterus. Two other beautiful species of the Old World have been generally, and most likely properly, assigned to the genus Euspiza — the E. aureola of North- eastern Europe and of Asia, and the E. luteola of Central Asia and of India — as well as the E. americana of the New World, though whether this last is rightly included the writer does not feel himself competent to declare.* * The occurrence in Great Britain of two examples of the North-American White -throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicoUis) — the one near Aberdeen, August 17th, 1867, the other near Brighton, March 22nd, 1872 — has been recorded by Mr. Angus (Proc. N. H. Soc. Glasg. i. p. 209) and Mr. Rowley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 681) respectively. The genus to which this species belongs is allied to if not one of the true Emberizvdce, but as a land-bird of the New World it does not come within the scope of this book. 68 PASSERES. FIUNGILLID.E. FRINGILLIDJB Fringilla ccelebs Linmeus*. THE CHAFFINCH. Fringilla ccelebs. FkinGILLA, Linnaus], — Bill hard, straight, s c\\ hat, Iiiii.l', nearly corneal, but bulging slightly and pointed ; mandibles nearly equal, edges plain. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, partly hidden bj projecting and recurved frontal plumes- Gape straight. Wings with the first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting, the resl varying in bheii comparative Length in different species, but the second always shorter than the third, which or the fourth is longest La the wing. Tail moderately long and decidedly Eorked. Tarsus stout, shortish, scutellate in front, covered a1 the .-ides with a single plate. Claws moderately curved, rather short. The male Chaffinch is one of the most handsome and sprightly of our common small birds, and being also confi- dent in his behaviour, as though courting the notice of men, is extremely well known throughout nearly all parts of the Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 318(1766). t Tom. cit. p. 317. CHAFFINCH. 69 British Islands. His gay appearance, peculiar call-note and merry song, which, beginning with the first open weather, is one of the earliest indications of returning spring, also ren- der him a general favourite, notwithstanding a certain amount of damage he is licensed of doing in gardens, when the seeds are newly sown. On the Continent, especially in Germany, he is one of the most highly-valued cage-birds, and in France his lively colours and demeanour have long made the phrase " Got comme Pinson"* proverhial. From his perch on some moderately high twig the often-repeated hurst of his strain attracts attention throughout the vernal season till midsum- mer, and is hardly overpowered by any other, even among the general choir of songsters, while the performer is easily descried and recognized by his variegated plumage. At this time, too, he frequently displays to advantage the command of wing he possesses, and, springing aloft for two or three yards to seize a passing insect, he proves an apt flycatcher, returning to his perch to treat his partner with another song and then repeating the aerial evolution. His habit of elevat- ing the feathers of the sinciput, which seems to he a peculiarity common to all the species of his genus, gives him a pert air, not, at all inappropriate to the boldness and loudness with which his voice proclaims his presence. In winter also he may lie seen, somewhat suhdued indeed hut still sprightly and neat, husily engaged with his mates wherever food is to he found, whether intently searching for seeds among the chaff at the harn-door and round the stacks in the rickyard, or nimbly making his way in a, succession of short hops across some fallow field or smooth lawn in quest of any sprouting weed. * The name Pinson, in Italian Pinsione, comes directly from the Low-Latin Pincio, which is supposed to lie derived froi ■ cognate with the Celtic Pine (Littre", l»i<-t. de la Lang Fran?, ii p. 1125). This last word we have still as a local name in England in the forms "Pint," "Spink" and "Twink," obviouslj owing their origin I" the bird's rail-note ; and in like manner lias arisen the German Finkmd our " Finch." Pinson, though often sprit Pincon, lias, according to M. i/ittrr, nothing to do with the verb pingei; as Belon ami Borne others have thought. In the North of England and in Scotland the Chaffinch is known by names of a very different kind, as "Scobby," "Shelly"and "Shilfa " 70 FRINGILLIDiE. The Chaffinch had long been known on the continent as a bird-of-passage, but Linnaeus, informed by Leche, first pub- lished the interesting information that in Sweden the hens left the country in winter while the cocks did not, and hence applied the trivial name of ccelebs, or bachelor, to the species iu reference to these deserted males. The evidence of later Swedish authorities does not altogether confirm this observa- tion. Prof. Nilsson, in 1817, said thq,t but few of the species wintered in Sweden at all, but that these few were not males only. In 1835 he stated that the cocks both departed and returned before the hens, while, in 1858, he declared be- sides that the former have a winter-dress like that of the hens, but that each sex migrates separately. Sundevall agrees to the last assertion, denying, however, and as regards the adults unquestionably with truth, that the sexes are alike at any season. It is probable that most of these discrepan- cies are the result of observations made in different parts of the country, but other instances are known of the temporary separation of the sexes among birds. The testimony of the best observers in the British Islands is at variance on this point in the habits of the Chaffinch, and the diversity must be attributed to difference of situation. More than a century ago White of Selborne wrote that for many years he had remarked the vast flocks of hen Chaffinches, with scarcely a cock among them, that appeared in the fields towards Christ- mas, and naturally correlated this fact with Linnreus's state- ment. Selby, more than fifty years since, observed that in Northumberland and the south of Scotland few females were seen between November and the return of spring, and those only in distinct societies, while immense flocks of males remained during the winter. But, these accounts being doubtless true as regards the localities to which they refer, we have on the other hand men just as accurate — Montagu in Devonshire and Knapp in Gloucestershire, for instance, to say nothing of other more recent and not less excellent observers — denying that any such separation is apparent in their respective neighbourhoods. We certainly receive, in autumn or early winter, most likely from Norway and Sweden, CHAFFINCH. 71 large flocks of immigrant Chaffinches, which seem composed almost entirely of females, though young males that have not yet put on the external distinction of their sex may he among them. These strangers appear chiefly on the east coast of England, from Yorkshire southward, hut how far they penetrate to the interior, and whether any great number of them remain with us till spring, are questions hitherto unanswered. That our home-bred birds should in some degree make room for them is only to be expected, but to what extent this movement takes place is also unknown. In Shetland, on the contrary, the number of females is said by Saxby to be very small as compared with that of the males, but in the north of Ireland, according to Thompson, very large flocks, among which there are none of the latter, occur at times in winter, while again he has seen flocks of moderate size comprising a fair proportion of both sexes, and these he is disposed to believe were indigenous birds. Their flight, like that of most Finches, is undulating, and their food for the greater part of the year consists chiefly of insects, varied, especially during the winter, with seeds, some of which being those of very troublesome weeds, the birds that consume them ought rather to be deemed useful auxiliaries to the farmer and gardener, though they un- doubtedly pilfer from stacks, and may at times do not inconsiderable damage by picking out the newly-sown corn or other seeds, when these are not buried deeply enough. But the loss thus inflicted seems to be more than compen- sated by the gain that results from their destruction of noxious insects, as witness the opinions of observers so well qualified as Mr. Hepburn (Zool. p. 298 and p. 573), M. Florent Prevost and Mr. Cecil Smith (B. Somerset, p. 174), and the enmity often shewn towards this species is most likely unjustifiable. The Finches generally are remarkablo for the compact, soft and beautiful nests which most of them build, and the Chaffinch is pre-eminently so. However different may be the outward appearance of the neat and closely-woven structure, the material upon which the whole tissue seems to 72 FliIN T GII,I,ll)/E. depend is wool, into which green moss, lichens of various colours, and other substances are worked with wonderful skill so as to produce a shapely mass of almost uniform consistency. Outwardly, the texture is more or less studded with such lichens as may best accord with the situation in which it is placed, and films of the thin inner bark of certain trees, especially the birch, are often interwoven ; these ex- ternal additions, which artfully serve to protect the nest from discovery, being further secured by spiders' webs, or the webs alone may be thickly laced across and around the whole. Inside, the wool is still more closely felted, and covered with a smooth lining of hairs, while to complete this masterpiece of upholstery a few soft feathers are deftly arranged, often so as to curl over the interior and more effectually conceal its contents. This exquisite fabric seems, on the evidence of more than one observer, to be the work of the hen-bird only, and numerous instances have been remarked wherein, unable to procure all her proper materials, she has supplied the want by using the best substitutes available — paper torn to tatters being often one of them — but the beauty of the nest is nearly always spoilt thereby. The place chosen for it is as variable as the substances of which it is composed, but the forked bough of a bush or small tree is a very favourite situation, and it is seldom built lower than five or six feet or higher than twelve or fifteen from the ground. The eggs are usually five in number, measuring from '85 to '75 by from -59 to "55 in., a dwarf being, however, not more than *G3 by '48 in. They arc of a pale greenish-blue, generally suifused with reddish- brown or purplish-buff, so that the prevalent tint is commonly a warm one ; on this many markings of dark crimson are deposited, some in the form of well-defined spots, but others almost invariably with blurred edges that are insensibly lost on the ground-colour. The Chaffinch is generally distributed over the British Islands — those among the Outer Hebrides which are treeless, Orkney and Shetland being perhaps the only places where it does not yearly breed. Yet it visits even those barren wastes occasionally, Mr. Elwes having seen one on a mountain in CHAFFINCH. 73 Jura at the height of 2500 feet, while it occurs plentifully every winter in Shetland. As a straggler it has been ob- served by Herr H. C. Miiller in the Faeroes. In Norway and Sweden it extends in summer far beyond the Arctic Circle, and, though becoming somewhat rare in those high latitudes, Herr Collett, in June 1872, met with a pair on the rocky island of Gjsesvrer, near the North Cape, which is almost destitute of any arboreal vegetation. In the interior of Finland it is far from uncommon, and it seems to be met with throughout the forests of Kussia so far northward as Archangel. Pallas vouches for its appearance in Siberia, but how far to the eastward it ranges is unknown, since his successors in the ornithological exploration of that country do not mention it. Mr. Blanford has obtained it in Belooch- istan. It is a very common winter-visitant to Palestine, and breeds abundantly in the highest parts of the Lebanon. Mr. Wyatt obtained a specimen in the Sinaitic peninsula, and it occurs in winter in Egypt, but is rarely seen further south than Cairo, and, according to Capt. Shelley, probably does not go beyond the First Cataract of the Nile. It is a common winter-bird in the Levant generally, and Col. Drummond- Hay believes that it breeds in Crete. In North-west Africa it is very rare, and only a few examples have been observed in Algeria, where the closely-allied but quite distinct Fringilla spodiogenia takes its place, while in Madeira, the Azores and Canaries it is represented by two other species, F. tint ill m and F. teydea. Almost everywhere throughout Europe it is as common a bird as it is with us, and is generally more or less migratory in its habits, but in a locality so far south as the Balearic Islands it is said to be resident. The adult male in summer has the bill of a deep bluish lead-colour, inclining to pink at the base of the lower man- dible : the irides hazel : the feathers of the forehead black ; top of the head and nape dark bluish-grey, the latter bounded by a narrow half-collar of dark oil-green ; upper part of the back dull chestnut, changing just above the rump to oil-green, which continues over the upper tail-coverts ; scapulars and least wing-coverts dark bluish-grey, the next tier of wiug- VOL. II. L 74 KH INC. 1 1,1-1 DM. coverts pure white, the lowest tier of those which cover the secondaries deep black at the base, broadly tipped with white and often tinged with yellow, thus forming two conspicuous white bars across each wing ; the rest of the wing-coverts and the quills dusky black, the latter narrowly edged with greyish-white, the inner primaries having also a white patch at the base of the outer web ; the tertials broadly margined with yellowish-white ; the two middle tail-feathers greyish- black, the next three pairs dull black ; the next pair dull black, with a narrow white outer margin and a triangular white patch on the inner web ; the outer pair black only at the base along the shaft and on both sides of it near the tip, the rest being white ; the cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, breast and flanks, a rich reddish-brown, becoming paler on the belly and lower tail-coverts : legs, toes and claws, brown. In winter the bill is of a brownish flesh-colour : the plumage of the upper parts, but especially of the head, is obscured by the long brown margins of the feathers. The edging of the tertials is ochreous, and the white of the wings is often tinged with yellow, while the colouring of the breast is much less bright. The whole length is six inches ; that of the wing, three inches and three-eighths ; the third and fourth primaries are equal and the longest in the wing, but the fifth is nearly equal to them and longer than the second, which again is longer than the sixth : the first being, as already stated among the generic characters, almost obsolete. The female has the head and back hair-brown, darkest on the sides, with, a very perceptible pale patch on the nape ; the rump and tail-coverts are much more dingy than in the male ; the lower parts are of a dull fawn colour, and the black of the quills is less pure, but the two white bars on the wings are rather less conspicuous. The young in their nestling plumage much resemble the adult female, but their colours are less vivid and more blended. Both this species and the next have some long, fine hairs growing among the feathers at the back of the head. 13 H AMBLING. PASSE RES 75 FRiyGILLlDAi. Fkingilla montifringilla, Linnoeus*. THE BRAMBLING. Fringilla montifringilla. The Brambling or Mountain-Finch, as some British authors have chosen to call it, is an autumnal visitor to these islands, coming from the north and passing the winter with us ; hut in many places throughout the country it appears very irregularly, hoth as regards numbers and time of arrival. It is said to have been seen on the Cumberland hills as early as the middle of August, but this statement, made in Bewick's work, if it did not arise in error, can hardly be matched elsewhere. Even on the north-east coast of Great Britain it docs not usually appear until about the * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 318 (1766). 76 fringillim:. middle of October, and it is often two months later before the largest flocks arrive. Mr. K. Gray says that in the east of Scotland on its first coming it betakes itself to the higher grounds, but after a time, especially on the approach of snow, it descends to the low-lying farms, where it becomes a familiar tenant of the stack-yard. In England, however, it rather frequents stubble-fields enclosed by thick hedges, feeding on the grain and seeds to be found there. Mr. Scales, formerly of Beechamwell, in Norfolk, told Sheppard and Whitear that he considered it of service to the land, from its devouring those of the knot-grass, Polygonum aviculare. Later in the season, and particularly in severe weather, the woodlands form its chief resort, and it congregates in large numbers under old beeches, diligently searching for the fallen mast of those trees, which during frost or snow seems to furnish its main supply of food. Mr. Alston too, earlier in the year, has known it to eat the kernels of nuts. At times a few Bramblings will associate with the flocks of Yellow Buntings and Chaffinches in the open fields and stack-yards, but by far the greater number form larger or smaller gatherings of their own, though these may occasion- ally be joined by some Chaffinches, who seem to profit by the greater strength and activity of their congeners in clearing the ground and discovering the hidden food. As above stated the flocks vary much in size in different years, and perhaps a season or more will pass without a single bird shewing itself in a locality where it had before been numer- ous. Such irregularity is doubtless in some degree due to the effects of climate in the mother-country of the species, but it is also strongly influenced by the abundance or scarcity of food in the several parts of these islands, and with us there is hardly any season or place that produces a plentiful crop of beech-mast in which Bramblings will not make their appearance in corresponding numbers — though as regards England it must be remembered that they seem to be always comparatively rare in the midland and still more so in the western counties. Occasionally the flocks will con- sist entirely or chiefly of cock-birds, but on the other hand BRAMBLING. 77 in North Lincolnshire Mr. Cordeaux has always found these singly. In this respect therefore the habits of the Bram- bling resemble those of the Chaffinch. Several observers in this island have recorded the vast extent of the migrating flocks noticed by them, as in the case which Mr. K. Gray quotes, where in Stirlingshire in January 1867, a column of birds a quarter of a mile long and fifteen yards broad was seen passing overhead, but at no great height — every slight altera- tion in the flight of the leaders being copied by their followers, giving the whole mass a strange, serpent-like appearance ; or again in the instances referred to by Mr. Stevenson, in one of which a flock was seen on a March morning in 1865, stream- ing from its roosting-place in Stoke park, near Slough, without intermission for thirty-five minutes, and forty-five birds were killed at a single shot by the observer. Yet the numbers that visit us seem insignificant compared with the swarms that in some seasons occur on the continent, for Bech- stein states that in 1780, which was a great year for beech- mast, some hundred-thousand frequented the foot of the ThLiringerwald, and that the like was the case in 1804 and 1805. As vast must have been the hosts which, according to De Montbeillard, appeared on the PJiine in 1735 and 1757, and in Lorraine in 1765, when every night more than six- hundred dozens were killed, while large flocks visited Burgun- dy in 1774, and Wurttemberg in December, 1775. M. de la Fontaine computes a flight which appeared in Luxemburg in February, 1865, to have numbered sixty millions ! They are not known with certainty to have bred with us except in captivity, and it is seldom that an example in full plumage is found at large in this country. As regards date, the latest occurrence of the species in any season is probably that mentioned by Baikie and Heddle in Orkney, May 19th, 1839. A long search in various publications fails to shew that it is often seen later than the middle of March, by which time it has usually left Britain, one must therefore receive with caution the statements which have been made as to its breeding in England. Those in H. L. Meyer's ' British Birds ' may for various reasons be justifiably dis- /o FRTNGTLIJD/E. credited, but Mr. Atkinson recorded (Zool. p. 9210) on the authority of Mr. Guy Dawnay a supposed instance of the Brambling breeding near Thirsk, the bird, however, which built the nest and laid the eggs was not procured. Mr. Harvie Brown in 1861 saw near Stirling a pair, whose actions made him feel sure that they had a nest (Zool. s.s. pp. 69, 892). In Germany, on evidence just as unsatisfactory, the species has also been believed occasionally to pass the summer, and Brehm says that it bred in his neighbourhood in 1818. In confinement the Brambling has frequently built a nest and laid eggs, though it does not seem to have hatched its young. Even in Norway it does not generally breed to the south of lat. 59° N. or in Sweden to the south of lat. 62° N., and in both countries this boundary must be understood to have reference only to the mountainous districts, for in the lowlands of each its breeding-range lies far to the northward. On the higher verge of the fir-forests, however, it is pretty numerous in summer, and is still more abun- dant where the birch becomes the prevalent growth, follow- ing that tree to its furthest limits. The nest is usually placed, some ten or fifteen feet from the ground, at the base of a horizontal branch and against the bole of a birch, or in the fork of two or more upstanding smaller branches, which support and are often enclosed within its walls. In substance and structure it greatly resembles that of the Chaffinch, but is larger and less compact. The eggs also are very like those of that species, but they more fre- quently want the reddish, suffused tinge, and have the mark- ings better defined and less blurred, though some specimens of each are quite indistinguishable. They vary in size from •78 to *67 by from *59 to "53 in. Not unfrequently an egg is found in the nest in colour nearly agreeing with the rest of its contents, but measuring from "86 to "83 by from '67 to - 65 in. Such examples are believed, and perhaps cor- rectly, to be the produce of the Cuckow, but proof of their parentage is as yet wanting. The cock has a song which an unpractised ear, however, may pass many days, even in forests where the bird is common, without catching, for it is short BRAMBLING. 79 and is delivered in a low undertone ending in a hoarse and droning note, which is often the only part audible at a short distance and is much like that uttered by the Greenfinch. Mr. Walmesley who correctly describes the Brarnbling's song (Zool. p. 1024) seems to be alone in having heard it in this country, except when the bird is caged, and, as Blyth remarked (Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 487), it is not in the least like a Chaffinch's. The call-note is a single, harsh mono- tonous chirp and in captivity is frequently uttered at night, on the slightest or even without any apparent disturbance, and so sharply as to sound like a scream of terror. The Brambling is pretty generally distributed, subject to the irregularity of its appearance before noticed, through- out the British Islands in winter, its visits to the extreme west of England depending a good deal, however, on the severity of the weather. In Ireland, owing to the unfortu- nate dearth of observers, less is known of its occurrences, but since Thompson states that it sometimes appears in the north by the thousand, and mentions three specimens which had been obtained in Kerry, it evidently ranges over the whole island, though, as Mr. Watters remarks, it gradually decreases in numbers as it approaches the south. A small flock has been once noticed in the Faeroes. On the continent its breeding-range extends eastward to the Sea of Ochotsk, and its limits in summer for Norway and Sweden have already been approximately stated, but they cannot be defined as regards the Russian dominions. In winter it occurs almost all over temperate and southern Europe, and it crosses the Mediterranean to Algeria, while it also reaches Sicily and Malta. At the same season it also appears in Greece, Asia Minor and Persia, after which we know little of its limits in Asia, except that it is occasionally found in the north-west Himalayas, till we get to China, where Mr. Swinhoe has obtained it so far south as Amoy, and in Latham's time it had been met with off the coast of Japan. The male in summer has the bill bluish-black : the irides brown : the whole of the head and cheeks from the corners of the lower mandible, the nape and sides of the neck and 80 FKINGILLIDiE. the upper half of the back, jet-black glossed with steel-blue ou the head, each feather of the neck and back being greyish-white at the base, the lighter portion generally shew- ing in life on the nape, and forming an ill-defined whitish patch thereon ; scapulars pale buff ; least wing-coverts dull orange passing into white ; greater wing-coverts jet-black, tipped with buffy-white, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing ; wing-quills black, narrowly edged outside with greyish-white, the inner primaries having also a white patch at the base of the outer web, the tertials broadly edged with buffy-white ; lower half of the back white, intermixed with a few black feathers ; upper tail-coverts black, tipped with greyish-white ; tail-feathers shining black, the middle pair inwardly edged with greyish-white, the outer pair with an elongated white stripe on each side of the shaft at the base and a whitish tip to the inner web ; the chin and throat are commonly of a pale yellowish-buff, but some examples have these parts black like the head*; the upper part of the breast and sides reddish fawn-colour ; lower part of the breast, the belly and lower tail-coverts, dull white ; the flanks spotted with black ; axillary plume, and the smaller lower wing-coverts bright yellow ; the other under wing- coverts white : legs, toes and claws, dark reddish-brown. The whole length of the male is six inches and three- quarters, that of the wing three inches and five-eighths ; the second, third and fourth primaries are nearly equal, but the third very slightly exceeds the other two, and is the longest in the wing — the first primary being so small as to seem wanting, and the fifth about one-eighth of an inch shorter than the third and considerably longer than the sixth. The male in autumn and winter, as represented in the wood- cut, has the bill bright yellow, tipped with dark horn-colour : the glossy black feathers of the head and upper parts of the neck and back are more or less obscured by their long mar- * Specimens shewing this peculiarity have been noticed by Latham, Gloger and Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, and such are in the collections of Messrs. Bond, J. H. Gurney, Swinhoe (from China) and Kowley — the last of whom has figured one of them, though in winter-plumage, having the black feathers tipped with brown (Orn. Miscell. p. 90, fig. 2). BRAMBLING. 8 1 gins of light reddish-brown, while those of the sides of the head and neck are edged with greyish-white ; the least wing- coverts are of a deeper orange, and the greater wing-coverts and tertials are tipped and edged with the same colour, which in a less degree tinges the upper tail-coverts. The rest of the plumage is much the same as in summer except that the tail-feathers are edged with greyish- white, and the tint of the throat and upper part of the breast is deeper, almost approaching to a dull orange. The female changes much less with the season, and has the bill dull horn-colour, darkest at the tip : the feathers of the top of the head and upper part of the back are dark brown, but so broadly bordered with light hair-brown as to seem chiefly of the latter hue spotted with the darker shade ; the lores and ear-coverts dull mouse-colour passing into ashy-grey on the sides of the neck ; the patch on the nape is pale brownish-grey; the wings are marked much as in the male, but the orange tints are very dingy, and the black much less deep, as is also the case with the tail ; the second- aries are outwardly edged with dull yellow ; the rump is mixed with, and the upper tail-coverts are wholly, blackish- grey ; from each corner of the lower mandible there runs a short streak of blackish-brown ; the chin, throat and upper part of the breast are reddish fawn-colour, deepening on the sides of the breast to a very dingy orange ; the belly is dull white and the lower tail-coverts are tinged with rufous. The young on leaving the nest have the head and back greyish-brown, deepening to blackish-brown on the sinciput and on either side of the nuchal patch, which is greyish-white; the least wing-coverts are orange-brown ; the next series dull black, tipped with dull white ; the greater wing-coverts also black, tipped with pale buff ; the wing-quills black — the primaries and secondaries edged narrowly with yellow, the tertials broadly with orange-brown ; the tail-coverts and tail- quills black, broadly tipped with light reddish-brown ; the chin greyish-white ; the throat and upper part of the breast dull fawn-colour, deeper in tint on the sides ; the belly and lower tail-coverts greyish-white. VOL. II. M 82 PA SSEBES. FR1XGILUD.E. FIUXOlLLlDJi. &M^^ : '■■■ Passer montanus (Linnaeus*). THE TBEE-SPARROW. Passer montanus. Passkr, Brisson\. — Bill hard, strong, somewhat conical hut bulging above and below, longer than deep ; upper mandible larger than the lower, edges nearly plain. Nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, almost hidden by projecting and recurved frontal plumes. Gape straight. Wings with the first primary small and attenuated, but distinctly developed, the third or fourth rather the longest, but the second, third and fourth, sometimes even the fifth, are not very unequal. Tail moderate or short, and nearly square. Tarsus stout, nearly as long as the middle toe, scutellate in front, covered at the sides by a single plate. Claws moderately curved, rather short. The numerous species of Sparrows {, some of which are found in almost every part of the Old World, excepting Australasia, are well entitled to generic distinction, hut their precise affinity to other groups of Finches is not so clear. Certain systematists indeed would remove them from the * FringiUa montana, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 324. f Urn. iii. p. 71 (1760). ! The word being here used in its technical and limited sense. TREE-SPARROW. 83 Fringillida and place them among the Weaver-birds, which by many naturalists are regarded as forming a distinct family — Ploceida. The question whether this view be correct needs not discussion here, but even if it be the inclusion of the Sparrows among the Weaver-birds is an extremely doubtful step, and in this work it seems at present advisable to retain our two species in the position they have long occupied, though their place between the genera Fringilla and Coccothranstes is obviously faulty. The Tree-Sparrow is an active, lively bird, in appearance and some of its peculiarities, very similar to the well-known House- Sparrow, for which it may, by the careless, be readily mistaken, though it can always be distinguished by its reddish-brown crown, the black patch on the sides of its neck, and its doubly-barred wings*. Its note also, once recognized, can never fail to ensure its discovery, and there is further this remarkable and important distinction between the two species, namely that in the common or House- Sparrow the old cock differs greatly in plumage from the hen, whereas in the Tree-Sparrow both sexes are very nearly alike. In Britain it is far less numerous as a species than its congener, and though occurring throughout most parts of England, as will presently be stated at greater length, it forms with us comparatively small settlements instead of being generally distributed. No plausible reason can be as yet assigned for its being limited to such stations, but the fact is undoubted. While certainly with us generally preferring trees growing in the open country to woods or the neighbourhood of man, and never in Britain inhabiting towns, it sometimes affects buildings, as appears by a communication from the Messrs. Dimock, of Uppingham, who observed it frequently building in the thatch of a barn, in company with the House-Sparrow, entering it by holes in the outside. This statement is con- firmed by Hoy's experience on the continent, where lie often found the Tree- Sparrow breeding in tiled roofs, as well as in stacks of faggots, and is further corroborated by Mr. Hewit- * Unfortunately this last peculiarity lias not been sufficiently shewn by the draughtsman in tin.' woodout at the head of tins article. 84 FRINGILLID.E. son, who says that he has known it in Northumberland to breed under the coping of old walls in the society of the kindred species. The like choice has been noticed in the same district by Mr. Hancock, and by Vieillot in France ; while, as will presently appear, throughout the greater part of its range it has become almost exclusively an house- haunting bird. It will also build in the deserted nests of Crows and Pies,* in which it constructs a domed abode, and it has bred in the hole of a tree that had been occupied by a Green Woodpecker. Still, while the House-Sparrow has to a great extent abandoned its natural habit, the Tree- Sparrow, from its comparative shyness in this country, has with us generally preserved its ancient mode of building, and usually frequents old trees remote from houses, such as those at Wainfleet in Lincolnshire, where Montagu was enabled to determine several important facts respecting it. It is perhaps most plentiful along the rows of pollard-willows that fringe so many of our sluggish rivers and canals, where it easily excavates in the soft, rotten wood a receptacle for its nest, consisting, in such cases, of but a small quantity of dry grass with a lining of feathers. The eggs, from four to six in number, measuring from *8 to '69 by from *56 to •52 in., are of a french white, blotched or speckled, some- times sparingly but generally freckled all over, with a deep hair-brown : when the markings are collected in large masses other splotches of ash-colour may be seen on the very apparent white ground, and in most nests of the species there is one egg of this character, whatever be the pattern of the rest. The young are fed with insects and soft vegetables, which also form the principal sustenance of the parents during spring and summer. At other times they feed on seeds, and in winter both young and old will occasionally flock with other Finches and Buntings to rick- yards or any places likely to supply food. This seasonal change of locality shews that the Tree- Sparrows which abide • As already stated in this work (vol. i. p. 22) Malhcrbe has found nests of this species in Sicily beneath an eyry that contained two Eaglets. TREE-SPARROW. 85 with us are yet partial migrants, and it is unquestionable that a large number visit England, especially its eastern side, every autumn. Mr. Cordeaux says that in Lincolnshire he has sometimes seen five or six hundred together. The birds have also been observed on their passage hither as recorded by Blyth (Field-Nat. i. p. 467) and Mr. Rodd (Zool. p. 7312). In the former case, which happened in October, 1833, flocks to the number of an hundred settled on a ship bound for the Thames as she passed the coast of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. In the latter, thousands, it is said, boarded a vessel between the Dogger Bank and the Galloper light-ship in November, 1860. The Editor may add that he has rarely crossed the North Sea without seeing some birds of this species which have often appeared far from land. The common call-note of the Tree-Sparrow is a chirp, not unlike though shriller than that of the House- Sparrow, but, as Blyth remarks (Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 488), it has others in great variety. The cock has also a proper song, which the same observant naturalist describes as " consisting of a number of these chirps, intermixed with some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous unbroken strain, sometimes for many minutes together ; very loudly, and having a charac- teristic sparrow tone throughout." The Tree- Sparrow is a local and comparatively rare species almost everywhere in England — even in those parts wherein it is most abundant — while in others it occurs but as a straggler. The English counties in which it seems not yet to have been recorded as breeding are Cornwall, Devon, Wilts, Hants, Surrey, Herts, Middlesex, Bedford, Mon- mouth, Worcester, Westmoreland and Cumberland, but it has probably been overlooked in all these except the two first, the two last and Monmouthshire. It has not been known to breed in Wales, and in Scotland its settlements are still more sporadic — the counties of Berwick, Hadding- ton, possibly Clackmannan, Perth, Aberdeen, Elgin and, since 1872 (Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1875, p. 101), Sutherland being those alone in which as yet its nests have 86 FKlNGILLIDyE. been found. In England probably, and in Scotland certainly, it is more numerous in the east than in the west, while in Ireland it was altogether unknown until procured by Mr. Blake-Knox (Zool. s.s. p. 2018) at Dalkey and Baldoyle, where, though scarce, it is believed to be resident. It is not found in Orkney or Shetland, but, about 1869, a few pairs reached the Faroes, where they have not only settled but thriven and multiplied, so much so, writes Capt. Feilden, as to be a perfect pest. In Norway also this species seems to be extending its range, and, though extremely local and mostly confined to the coast-district, it has, according to Herr Collett, crossed the Arctic Circle. Pastor Sommerfelt saw four examples, he says, in 1855 at Polmak on the Tana, which were collecting feathers for their nests, though these he could not find.* Throughout Sweden and Finland it occurs, but is still rare and exceedingly local. Thence it is found in places, and sometimes abundantly, to the Petchora valley. Indeed its numbers seem to increase as we go eastward, and it extends across Siberia to the Pacific and reaches Japan, being common, according to Capt. Blakiston and Mr. Henry Whitely, at Hakodadi. Throughout China and its chief islands it was observed by Mr. Swinhoe to take the place of the House- Sparrow, inhabiting the towns and behaving with the careless effrontery generally considered to be the peculiar characteristic of that species, but this seems also to be the case wherever it occurs in Southern Asia. According to Dr. Cabanis (Mus. Hein. i. p. 156) it has been sent from Manilla in the Philippines, but there is nothing to shew that it may not have been originally imported thither from China. However it is said to be the common Sparrow of Java, and Dr. Cantor procured it at Singapore. Sir Robert Schomburgh describes it sis being plentiful in Siam (Ibis, 1864, p. 256), and it is certainly found from Pegu (where the natives treat it, according to Beavan, with the greatest kindness) and Arracan, throughout the hill-ranges of Assam and along the Tlie Editor and his companions Messrs. Wolley and Hudleston who were at tliis place thr same summer were not even so fortunate as their friend the worthy pastor. No birds of this species were seen by the in there. TREE-SPARROW. 87 Himalayas, to Nepaul. Mr. Scully states that it is the common species of Eastern Turkestan, where it is a permanent resident up to an elevation of about 7,500 feet. Thence to the westward its limits are not easily traced, for though De Filippi observed it at the foot of Demavend, it does not seem to have been noticed by any of the naturalists who have explored Armenia, Anatolia or Palestine, nor is it recorded from the Caucasus, though said to be abundant in South Russia. On the other hand Dr. von Heuglin says that it visits Arabia and Egypt. It occurs, though rarely, in Algeria. In the islands and peninsulas of the Mediterranean it is scarce and extremely local, but this last seems to be its characteristic everywhere except in the more eastern part of its range, where, as already stated, it has learnt to adapt itself to circumstances and has become a dependent on man. Its distribution in Europe generally calls for no further remark.* In summer the bill of the male is lead-coloured, but during the rest of the year black : the irides hazel : the lores and a streak under the eyes black ; the top of the head to the nape dull nutmeg-brown ; cheeks and anterior ear-coverts white, with a triangular black patch covering the posterior ear-coverts and extending obliquely downwards to the jowl ; mantle and scapulars bright orange-brown, lightest on the nape, and broadly streaked with black ; least upper wing- coverts bright nutmeg-brown, the next tier black, with broad huffy- white tips ; the greater wing-coverts brownish-black, with broad outer edges of orange-brown and tipped with huffy- white ; wing-quills dull black, the primaries unevenly and the rest evenly margined with orange-brown ; tail-coverts uniform pale brown ; tail-quills brown, with light yellowish- brown edges; chin and throat black; sides of the neck white ; breast and belly dull brownish-white, darker or tinged with buff on the sides, flanks and lower tail-coverts ; lower wing-coverts pale fawn-colour : legs, toes and claws, pale brown. Dr. Brewer informs 1 1 » . • Editor that it has been unconsciously introduced to St. Louis in North America, as ascertained by Dr. Morrill. 88 FR1NGILLIDJE. The whole length is five inches and five-eighths ; that of the wing ahout two inches and three-quarters : the second primary is equal to the fifth, and longer than the sixth ; the third is rather longer than the fourth, and is the longest in the wing ; the fourth rather longer than the fifth. The female is only five inches and three-eighths in length ; but her plumage resembles that of the male, except that its colours are not quite so bright. The young birds in their nestling-feathers have the top of the head and least upper wing-coverts dull orange-brown ; in other respects, even to the black throat and the white sides of the neck, they much resemble the adults ; but the colours are everywhere paler and more dull. The vignette below represents the breast-bones of the Brambling and the House- Sparrow. HOUSE -SPARROW PASSERES. 89 FRINGILLIDjE. Passer domesticus (Linnaeus*). THE HOUSE-SPARROW. Passer domesticus. Of all our British Birds the Sparrow t is found through- out the year, whether in country or town, more attached to and identified with the habitations of men than any other ; * Fringilla domestica, Linnams, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 323 (1766). f This familiar bird in olden days was nicknamed, just as the Redbreast, Wren, Titmouse, Daw and Pie were called Robin, Jenny, Tom, Jack and .Ma g respectively. "Philip Sparrow" was a great favourite with the early English poets, but for centuries past this prefix, which is said to have been purely imita- tive of the bird's chirp, seems to have dropped out of use. Mr. Skcat in his excellent edition of Lan gland's 'Piers the Plowman, 1 published for the Early English Text Society, has shewn (part II. pp. xvii., xxi.) that two of its ancient versions, one at least written soon after the year 1400, mention " Sire philip pe sparwe." Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. (ed. Dyce, i. p.7>l) has an elegy on the death "f a pet Sparrow ("wlnte as mylke," whom " Gyb our cat hath slayne"), intituled 'The boke of Phyllyp Sparowe ' and written before the end of 1508 ; while Gascoigne, who was born abort 1525 and died in l.">77, also indited 'The Praise of Philip Sparrowe. ' Both the latter have the contraction VOL. IT. X 90 fpjngillibvE. and such is the confident familiarity obtained by long inter- course, that from the thatched roof of the peasant's cottage to the sculptured column of the prince's palace, all buildings are alike subject to its intrusion. Everywhere bold, active, vigilant and assuming, there is yet this difference observable, the bird that is reared in the smoky city affords but a poor example of the colours ornamenting that which is seen in the countryman's garden, or at the farmer's barn-door. Our Sparrow pairs early in the year, and being one of the most prolific of birds, great animosity and numerous contests for choice or possession occur at this season. There are few who have not witnessed in spring the scuffle and confusion of a Sparrow-fight, when five or six cocks may be seen engaged in indiscriminately attacking, buffetting, biting and scrambling over each other, with all the chatter and fury of excited rage ; but the matter in dispute being adjusted, each retires from the contest to attend to his mate and the more important duties of the season. Their nests are placed under the eaves of tiled or thatched roofs, in holes of walls, in the spouts of water-pipes, or in any crevice that will afford sufficient space and seeming security. But while availing itself of all these and several more sorts of artificial accommo- dation, the Sparrow often, and especially as summer draws on, builds for itself a nest in the branches of tall trees of almost any kind*, or among ivy and other climbing plants, seldom, however, choosing a spot that is far from an inha- bited house. In such cases — and they must be accounted its natural mode of nidification — the structure is very large, more than a yard in circumference, and covered with a dome. of the name to " Phip ", and the last applies it throughout to a female. Shake- spear (King John, i. 1) makes Gurney answer the younger Faulconhriilge " Good leave, good Philip"; to which the latter rejoins "Philip' sparrow!"; and Sir Philip Sidney (Astrophel, s. 83) has a sonnet to a Sparrow, beginning "Good In-other .Philip", and ending "Leave that Sir Phip, lest offe your necke be wroong." The expression was also known in Britanny and is duly noted in Le Gonidec's Breton Dictionary (p. 316). See further Nares's 'Glossary' (pp. 374, 37- r >) and Mr. Harting's 'Ornithology of Shakespeare' (p. 145). 1 Even the " Puzzle-monkey " (.1 rcmcaria imbricata) from the Chilian Andes, now so generally grown in our gardens and pleasure-grounds, is resorted to for this purpose. HOUSE-SPA.RROW. 91 The whole of its outworks are composed of straw, hay or dry grass, often intermingled with such shreds of manufac- tured stuffs as may be in the way, while the interior is profusely lined with feathers, and access thereto is gained by a hole left in the side. When, from the locality selected, the dome and outworks are not required, the amount of vegetable matter used is much less, and when a very small cavity is occupied perhaps only two or three straws may be found among the feathers which seem indispensable. Indeed so great is the bird's fondness for warmth that abundance of feathers are used to line even a nest in the inner side of the thick thatch of a barn, and it has been seen collecting them in winter and carrying them to the hole in which it often roosts in the company of its fellows. The first batch of eggs usually consists of five or six, and two other sets are frequently produced in the season. They are greenish- white, blotched, spotted, streaked or suffused with ash-colour and dusky brown, varying considerably in the quantity of this secondary colouring matter : their length is from *95 to •82, their breadth from '66 to *64, but an exceptionally small egg will measure *75 by '55 in. Occasionally the Sparrow plays the invader's part and seizes on the mud-built nest of the House-Martin, which after vain show of resistance, has to yield possession to the intruder, though cases are recorded in which the evicted owners are said to have revenged themselves bywalling-up their enemy alive, and leaving him to die — a prisoner in the domicile he has violated.* This act of aggression is perhaps the only charge against the Sparrow that can be maintained in an * The story is a very old one t but though instances of Sparrows turning out Martins occur every year, evidence of the revenge said to be taken l>y the latin- upon the former is most unsatisfactory. It is generally offered without even the slight corroboration that would he afforded by information as to time, place or observer — and the last, from the language used, would seldom seem to have been a naturalist. Most of the instances, even in modern times, rest admittedly on second-hand reports, as those given by Jesse (Gleanings, ser. '_', pp. 99, loo) and Macgillivray (Br. B. iii. pp. 591, 592). The best authenticated perhaps is that for which M. de Tarragon personally vouches (Rev. Zool. 1843, p. J524), but this witness speaks of the aggressor being a "moiueau friquet " i.e. a Tree- Sparrow, and this fact casts a shade of suspicion on his evidence. 92 ikinCtIllide. ornithologist's eyes ; but here it is not intended to go into the vexed question of the comparative profit or loss of his existence, as regards the gardener and agriculturist. Very much is to be said on each side, and the bird's best friends will do wisely by eschewing any violent partizanship until far more careful observations — especially by disin- terested and unprejudiced persons — have been made. It may be freely admitted that in many instances the damage done to pease and ripening grain is incalculable ; but equally incalculable is the service as often performed by the destruc- tion of insect-pests. Not only are the young, during the earlier part of the breeding-season, mainly fed on destruc- tive caterpillars, but the parents, for their own sustenance then capture, even on the wing, a large number of noxious insects in their perfect stage *. Thus it is still a question whether the benefit conferred is not an equivalent for the corn and seeds stolen during the rest of the year, and it must be always borne in mind that a very large portion of the food of this and other species of granivorous birds is such as could never be turned to any useful end. What, however, are called " Sparrow Clubs " for the indiscriminate destruction of this and other small birds deserve neverthe- less to be regarded with the utmost abhorrence. The great attachment of the parents to their young has been frequently noticed. Prof. Bell, in 1824, stated (Zool. Journ. i. p. 10, note) that a pair of Sparrows, which had built in a thatched roof at Poole, were seem to continue their regular visits to the nest long after the time when the young usually take flight. This went on for some months, till in the winter, a gentleman who had all along observed them, determined on investigating the cause. Mounting a ladder, he found one of the young detained a prisoner by a piece of string or worsted, which formed part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted round its leg. Being thus unable to procure its own sustenance, it had been fed by the continued exertions of its parents. A parallel instance had * Particularly Phyllopertha h&rticola—the chovy, as it is called in East Aiiu'lia, where in some seasons it swarms and is most mischievous. HOUSE-SPARROW. 93 already been recorded by Graves, who, finding a nestling Sparrow in like manner entangled by a thread, observed that the parents fed it during the whole of the autumn and part of the winter, but, the weather becoming very severe soon after Christmas, he disengaged it lest its death might ensue. In a day or two it accompanied the old birds, and they continued to feed it till the month of March, by which time it may be presumed to have learnt to get its own living. The woodcut * represents the sad fate that befel a less fortunate Sparrow which had built its nest in the ornamental frieze of the Rotunda, in Dublin. Amongst the materials used for that purpose, there chanced to be a woollen thread, with a loop at one end. By some accident the bird got its neck into the noose ; and, all its efforts to escape being vain, was miserably hung below its own home. * Copied from the 'Illustrated London News' (vol. iv. p. 36) for January 20th, 1844. 94 FRINGILLID/E. The Sparrow, as before observed, is seldom seen far from the habitations of men ; but as summer advances, and the nestlings are able to go abroad, both old and young resort in flocks to the nearest corn-fields, and feast on the milky grain ; but when the crop is carried, their supply being cut off, they return to the vicinity of houses, to seek again the adventitious meal there afforded them. The House- Sparrow is common over nearly all of the British Islands, the chief exception being those of the Outer Hebrides, save Lewis — where, though now abundant, it seems not to have shewn itself till about 1830, and was not seen there even in 1842 by James Wilson — andBarra — where alone it was observed in 1830 by Macgillivray ; but there are many isolated spots in Scotland * where it is very rare, as some parts of the Highlands, according to the same naturalist, or is altogether absent, as the hill-farms in Ayrshire, according to Mr. Gray. Probably the same might be said of Ireland, if more were known of the ornithology of that country, since Lord Clermont, in a note kindly furnished to the Editor, states that, though common in the immediate neighbourhood, one pair only (which appeared for a few days in the spring of 1870) had been seen in the course of many years about the house, stables and gardens of Ravens- dale Park near Newry. In Norway it now occurs in most of the settlements, though missing some of them entirely, along the coast to the Loffodens and Alter), and is in such places generally resident ; but further to the northward it only occasionally shews itself, and has not yet made good its foot- ing either in Vardo or Vadso. In Sweden it follows the settlers into the forest-wilds, and the most northern point at present recorded for it is Karesuando — but this is beyond its ordinary range, though by 1854 Wolley found that it had established itself at Muonioniska, not much to the southward. Passing eastward it seems to bo very generally distributed through- out Finland excepting perhaps its northern parts, and Dr. * .Mr. Rowe states that he is informed that at Shepstor, a moorland village in Devon, the Sparrow is never seen. This is the sole exception to its universal dis- tribution in England known to the Editor. HOUSE- SPARROW. 95 Malmgren reports it as common all the year round at Kajana. It is abundant at Archangel, and occurs sporadi- cally in the valley of the Lower Petchora, where, according to Messrs. Harvie Brown and Seebohm, it is remarkable for its bright coloration. In Siberia it seems to have followed the post-roads, but to frequent only the vicinity of the stations near which corn is grown. Yet its invasion of that country is of modern date and since the Russian conquest. In some degree Pallas has traced its gradual progress across the Asiatic continent where its most northern limit in the Jenesei-valley is Vorogovo in lat 61° N. and, according to Dr. Von Middendorff, its most eastern is the confluence of the Shilka and Argun. Ornithologists are still divided in opinion as to whether the Sparrow of India (the Passer indicus of many authors) should be regarded as a distinct species or not. Mr. Dresser (who has perhaps examined a larger series of specimens than any one else) believes that no valid difference can be maintained, and if we follow him we find that the present bird has a very wide range in Asia, extending from Yarkand, where Dr. Severzov obtained it, to Siam and Ceylon — though here as in Europe there are many localities (not apparently unsuited to it) in which it does not occur. Returning westward some wide gaps hinder us from tracing its presumedly continuous range, but it inhabits Beloo- chistan, Bokhara and Persia, has been sent to the Zoological Society from Trebizond, and is the common species of the Levant generally — the neighbourhood of houses being here as elsewhere always understood. It is resident in the Nile- valley as high as Kordofan, and is common, though not universally distributed, in Algeria and Morocco. It also occurs in Madeira, but apparently not in the other Atlantic Islands. In the Iberian and Italian peninsulas it is in some measure replaced by two allied species (the P. hispani- olensis in the former and the P. italics in the latter), but throughout the rest of Europe it is almost everywhere common.* * Dr. Hartlauh has obligingly communicated the information that until the last seven or eight years no Sparrows were to be seen within the precincts of the 96 FRINGILLlDiE. The bill of the adult male in the breeding-season is a very dark lead-colour : the irides hazel : lores and a streak under the eyes, black, while just above and in front of each eye is a short streak of white ; top of the head to the nape ashy-grey ; cheeks and anterior ear-coverts greyish- white, posterior ear-coverts black ; behind the eyes a trian- gular patch of rich chestnut-brown passes round the back of the head to the nape, where it joins the corresponding patch on the other side, and thence descends along the sides of the neck ; immediately succeeding this half-collar is another of ashy-grey mixed with chestnut-brown ; the mantle, scapulars and least upper wing-coverts are rich chestnut-brown, the feathers of the two first black in the middle with ochreous edges ; the middle wing-coverts dull black, broadly tipped with white so as to form a conspicuous bar ; the greater wing-coverts and remiges dull brownish-black edged more or less broadly with orange-brown ; back dark smoky-grey, passing on the rump into olive-grey ; tail-quills dark brown, with lighter edges ; chin* and throat black, bounded by dull white which passes into grey on the breast and subsequently into pale greyish-brown on the belly and flanks, leaving the middle of the former of a dirty white ; lower tail-coverts dull ochreous-white, indistinctly streaked with brown ; lower wing- coverts shining greyish-white : legs, toes and claws, brown. remarkable fortress of Kiinigstein in Saxony, lmt since that time the species has become familiarized there. So far as the Editor is aware this bird is not known to thrive anywhere away from human habitations, and as above said it keeps extending its area as desert countries are settled by man, being dependent on liira for its living. Thus the questions are opened whether it should not be regarded as a parasite throughout the greater part of its present range, and what should be deemed its native country. These are points which never seem to have been discussed, but for all that are none the less worthy of consideration. Gifted with much greater locomotive powers than are the several species of rats and juice which have accompanied man in his wanderings, the advances of the Sparrow are much slower, but perhaps on that account the surer. Of late however man lias taken to aiding its progress, and through importation it is now naturalized and become common in many of the large towns of North America, in Bermuda and Cuba, in Mauritius and Reunion, in Australia and New Zealand. In most of these places it will of course oust some of the indigenous species and will most probably in a few years become an intolerable nuisance. * Mr. Rowley has a specimen in which the chin is chestnut like the back. HOUSE-SPARROW. 97 The whole length is about six inches and a quarter ; that of the wing, three inches : the second, third and fourth primaries nearly equal, but the fourth rather the longest ; the fifth a little shorter than any of them, and a good deal longer than the sixth. In autumn and winter the grey and chestnut-brown of the head are almost hidden, and the colours of the upper parts generally obscured, by the long wood-brown edges of the feathers, while from the same cause the white of the cheeks and lower parts is much suffused with dull mouse-colour, and the black of the throat interrupted by dirty white. The female has the bill brown ; the head and neck of an almost uniform brown with a stripe of pale, dull buff running backwards from each eye; the feathers on the back and wings are edged with dull buff; the white bar on the wing is tinged with ochreous ; chin, throat, breast and all the lower surface pale wood-brown, rather darker on the sides and Hanks. The vignette represents a common way of catching birds, especially Sparrows, at night and usually known as" Bat- fowling. " VOL. II. 98 PASSERES. FRTNGILUD.E. FRINGILLIDJ?. CoCCOTHRAUSTES VULGARIS, PaLLAS*. THE HAWFINCH. Goccotlt ra ustes vulgaris. Coccothraustes, Brissonf. — Bill hard, nearly conical, very thick at the base, tapering rapidly to the point ; culmen more or less rounded ; the mandibles nearly equal, edges inflected and slightly indented. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, nearly hidden by projecting and recurved frontal plumes. Gape slightly arched. Wings with the first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting, the third and fourth primaries nearly equal, and rather longer than the second. Tail short, and more or less forked. Tarsus scutellate in front, covered at the sides with a single plate, stout and shortish. Claws moderately curved, rather short and strong. The Hawfinch was for a long time described in many works as an accidental visitor, appearing only in autumn or winter; but, as increased attention was bestowed on ornithology, more correct views on the subject prevailed, and this bird is now known not only constantly to inhabit various parts of England in considerable numbers, but also is believed to be increasing year by year, both in numbers and in range. Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, ii. p. 12(1811). t Orn. iii. p. 218. HAWFINCH. 99 This supposition was tit first thought to be erroneous, for so great is its shyness, that it can undoubtedly exist unsus- pected in many a district, until some lucky chance reveals its presence to the less watchful, or some more than usually close observer detects its sly and stealthy movements which ordinarily defy near approach.* One of the best and earliest accounts of its habits is by the late Mr. Henry Doubleday, of Epping, in the ' Maga- zine of Zoology and Botany ' (i. p. 448). Writing in 1837, he says that having for some years given close attention to the habits of the species he can safely assert that it is a permanent resident, and cannot perceive any addition to its numbers by the arrival of foreigners at any season. In his neighbourhood its principal food appears to be the seed of the hornbeam (Carpinus betula), but it also feeds on the kernels of haws, laurels, plums and other stone-fruits, and in summer makes great havock among green pease in gar- dens near the forest. About the middle of April the Hawfinch pairs, and in a week or two begins to build. The nest is variously placed, but most commonly in an old scrubby hawthorn, and is often much exposed ; the horizontal arms of large oaks, the heads of pollard hornbeams, hollies, and occasionally fir-trees in plantations, are also chosen as a site — the elevation at which it is built varying from five to twenty-five or thirty feet. It is composed of dead twigs, of oak especially and honey- suckle, intermixed with pieces of grey lichen ; the quantity of this last material differing much, but being never absent. In some nests it is only very sparingly placed among the twigs, in others it forms the greater part. The lining con- sists of fine roots and a little hair. The whole fabric (as figured at page 110) is very loosely put together, and to remove it uninjured requires considerable care. * The Editor may frankly say that he has oot half-a-dozen times had the opportunity of seeing tins bird at large, ami never obtained mure than a momentary glimpse of it, sufficient to assure him as to its identity. He there fore does not hesitate to avail himself .,!' the carefully recorded details of its habits given by so trustworthy an observer as that whose account is epitomized in the text. 100 Kill Nf.l I.LI D.K. Mr. Doubleday says in continuation, that the young are hatched about the third week in May, and, so soon as they are able to provide for themselves, unite with their parents, in flocks, varying in number from fifteen or twenty to one or even two hundred. In this manner they remain through the winter, feeding on the hornbeam-seeds which have fallen to the ground, and only separating at the approach of the breed- ing-season. The male has no song worth notice ; but may be heard in warm days in March, when several are sitting together on a tree, uttering a few notes in a soft tone, bearing some resemblance to those of the Bullfinch ; and Montagu is a witness to its singing pleasantly in winter. Mr. Doubleday further remarks, that though so common in his neighbourhood, the Hawfinch is but little known, which fact is to be attributed to its shy and retired habits. It seemed to him to be rapidly increasing in numbers, and the anticipation, thus expressed, has been and is being ful- filled. The foregoing observations leave little to be added on the habits of this bird. Even while compiling the present account of it, the Editor has received overwhelming proofs*, in addition to the evidence to the same effect published since Doubleday's paper appeared, of the constant spreading and ever increasing abundance of the Hawfinch. No attempt to account for this can be made. The bird, however, still re- mains a local species, and though it has become so plentiful in many parts of the country, there are yet wide districts in which it is absolutely unknown. The partiality, observed by Doubleday, for the hawthorn as a site for its nest seems to be pretty well maintained, but the bird has learnt to build also in almost any kind of tree or shrub, from the cedar of Lebanon to the ivy on a wall, as well as to use almost any kind of materials for its purpose — the structure being always a platform of twigs, with a shallow cup, often neatly wrought, in its centre. Still with this ever increasing abundance of the species and extension of its range its shy * il would In- quite impossible here to give a tithe of the very full details with which he has been favoured by many correspondents to whom he is greatly in- debted for their information. HAWFINCH. 10] habits have undergone little if any change. It generally perches on the highest branch of a tree, or upon a dead or naked hough, whence it keeps so good a look-out that it is very difficult of approach, and even if seen it may well pass for some common species of Finch if the observer be not pretty acute. The eggs, in number from four to six, are commonly of a pale olive-green, spotted with black, and irregularly marked with bold streaks and dashes, or vermiform lines of dark olive. Other specimens have a very decided blue tinge, and occasionally the markings are almost or even entirely want- ing. Others have the ground-colour reddish as Lord Clifton informs the Editor. They measure from 1-08 to -9 by from -79 to -62 in. It is in what are known as the home-counties, Middlesex, Essex, Hertford, Buckingham, Berks, Surrey and Kent that the Hawfinch is most plentiful, and its abundance in the last is shewn by the fact that in the present year (1876) Lord Clifton, as he has informed the Editor, knew of more than fifty nests at Cobham. Mr. Cecil Smith has reason to believe that it has bred in Somerset, and to the eastward of long. 2° W. it has been ascertained to breed in every county south of York, save Stafford, Leicester and Lincoln — in all which, however, the discovery of its nest is probably only a matter of time. In winter it is recorded as having occurred in every English county except Westmoreland, and sometimes in great numbers, for it would seem that it occasionally migrates to this country in considerable flocks. Evidence of its appearance in Wales is not forthcoming, but it is no un- usual winter-visitant to Ireland, having been obtained at various places from Donegal round the eastern side of that island to Kerry, while it may possibly have bred there, since Air. Watters says that an egg sent to him from Meath was similar to those of this species obtained from the continent. The same observer notices the tamencss of examples seen by him in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin, where it lias been more often observed than elsewhere in Ireland — in singular contradistinction to its well known peculiarity in other 102 FRINGILLIDiE. localities. In Scotland its occurrence is chiefly accidental, and for the most part in winter only ; hut it has been obtained near Newtown-Stewart in Galloway, and has been traced, according to Mr. Gray, from Dumfriesshire to East Lothian, and thence to Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, Banff- shire — where Mr. Edward informed Mr. More that he believed a pair had once bred — and Caithness. Eastward and northward from the British Isles this bird is found occasionally in the extreme south of Norway, but can scarcely be considered an annual visitor to that country. In Sweden it extends further towards the north, having been seen by Zetterstedt (Resa genom Umea Lappmarker, p. 156), at Wilhelmina in Asele Lappmark. In Finland it is still rarer and it seems not to appear generally in Ptussia north of Rostoff, lat. G0° N. though, as Mr. Harvie Brown informs the Editor, an example has been obtained at Archangel : it must however be more common in the south. It is found throughout the middle and southern parts of Siberia, having been met with at Irkutsk and on the Amoor. In Mongolia it is said to be a bird of double passage and rather numerous. Mr. Swinhoe speaks of it as ranging in China from Pekin to Shanghai, and it occurs in Japan, whence specimens have been described by Temminck and Prof. Schlegel as forming a variety — Coceotliraustes vulgaris japonicus, but these Mr. Dresser declares can be matched by others from Spain and Italy.* It has not yet been recognized from India, but is found, though rarely, in Persia, and in Asia Minor it is said to be a resident. Canon Tristram met with it once in Palestine, near Gilead ; and it occasionally strays to Egypt, whence a single example is said to have been pro- cured. In Algeria it is more frequent, and it has occurred, says Loche, in all the three provinces of that country. In Morocco, however, it would seem again to grow scarce, though there is incontestable proof of its appearance in that * This careful ornithologist states that, on comparing a series of specimens from various localities, he finds that those from Northern Europe are duller in colour than othi n froi n- southern countries, ami that natives of our islamls are perhaps tin- dullesl of all, though sometinx - a British example may be found as richly coloured as any from the South of Europi - HAWFINCH. 103 empire. Throughout Europe, the northern parts already named heing excluded, its distribution requires no additional notice, save the remark that it is there, as with us, a more or less local species and in most places is rare. In all the countries it inhabits, the Hawfinch is most generally a resident — that is to say as regards the adults, since the young unquestionably leave their birth-place towards autumn. This sedentary condition of the former may be to some extent understood from the consideration that their food con- sists in great part of the seeds of trees, the fleshy pulp of the most succulent and sapid fruits being wholly rejected for the sake of the enclosed kernel — and whether it be the hard stone of the cherry which is adroitly cracked between the bird's mandibles or the comparatively fragile shell of the hornbeam's keys which offers no resistance worth mentioning to the same powerful crushers, the contained seed is the sole object sought. The bill of the adult male in summer is a deep leaden- blue : the irides greyish white : a thin black line stretches across the forehead and expanding on the lores surrounds the eyes ; the top and sides of the head dull orange-brown, lightest and tinged with ochreous towards the forehead and on the cheeks, darkest on the temples and sinciput ; nape and sides of the neck ash-grey ; upper part of the back, scapulars and tertials, dark chestnut-brown which becomes paler on the lower part of the back ; middle wing-coverts white, except the three innermost, which are dull orange- brown ; the other wing-coverts black ; wing-quills black, glossed with steel-blue on the portions left uncovered when the wing is folded, with an irregularly shaped white patch on the inner web — these patches decreasing in size from within outward, and forming a conspicuous band when the wing is open ; the sixth and four succeeding primaries formed like a bill-hook, as figured in the vignette ; the secondaries are nearly square at the tip; rump and upper tail-coverts dull orange-brown; the two middle tail-quills greyish-brown, tinged with rufous and indistinctly tipped with white ; the rest of the tail-quills black at the base ami on the outer web, 104 FRINGILL1DJE. with the distal half of the inner web white — the proportion of white increasing in each feather from within outward ; chin and throat velvet black ; sides of the neck, the breast and belly, pale nutmeg-brown ; vent and lower tail-coverts dull white : legs, toes and claws, pale wood-brown. The whole length is fully seven inches ; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, four inches : the second, third and fourth primaries very nearly equal, but the third rather the longest ; the fifth an eighth of an inch shorter than the fourth ; the sixth three-eighths of an inch shorter than the fifth : the tail very slightly forked. In the female, the black frontal line and lores are much less conspicuous than in the male, and the patch on the chin is smaller ; the colours generally are much less bright, and more blended — the top of the head, rump and tail-coverts in particular wanting the warm tint of the male ; the white of the larger wing-coverts is more mixed with brown, and the outer webs of the tertials are bluish-grey. In the young, and in the adults during winter, the bill is of a pinkish flesh-colour, inclining to pale brown on the ridge ; the head, neck, and upper parts, yellowish olive- brown ; the bar on the wing less conspicuous ; the throat yellow, bounded by a small line of brown spots, indicating the outline of the black gular patch in the adults ; lower parts pale yellowish-brown, each feather tipped with darker brown . PASSERES. GREENFINCH. 105 FRINGILLIDJR. COCCOTHRAUSTES CHLORIS (LinnseUS *). THE GREENFINCH. Coccothraustes chloris. The Greenfinch or Green Linnet, or Green Grosbeak as some book-makers have called it, is one of our com- monest birds, and remains in this country throughout the year, changing its station occasionally to obtain food or shelter in severe weather. It frequents gardens, small woods, and enclosed fields, being seldom seen far from trees or hedges, though it finds its living chiefly on the ground, where it searches for grain, seeds or insects. The notes of this bird are somewhat harsh and wanting in melody, but * Loxia chloris, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 304. VOL. II. P 106 fringillidjE. the song of the cock, begun rather late in spring, and pro- longed beyond midsummer, has that in it which harmonizes with the sultry season when it is most often heard, for the full vernal chorus of the grove overpowers the droning trill that afterwards becomes an acceptable though monotonous strain. This, however, he is not soon tired of uttering, and perched in a tree-top will reiterate it almost without variation, for half an hour together. At times indeed, he will launch forth into the air, and, after beating about vaguely for some space, will, with outstretched wings and tail, soar in a semi- circle to another like station, singing the while ; but such a feat is chiefly if not solely performed in the early days of courtship, and as the summer draws on, he seldom indulges in this graceful flight, but as rather becomes his portly figure remains stolidly seated while he trolls his lay. In confine- ment, the Greenfinch imitates the song of any fellow-captives, and without many qualities to recommend it as a cage -bird, soon becomes tame and reconciled to its prison. I have been favoured by a lady with an interesting account of a young bird of this species which flew on her shoulder whilst walking, and became in a few days very familiar, not to say, affectionate and playful. It lived for about five months in a state of semi-voluntary captivity, but on the return of its mistress from an absence abroad, it appeared to have for- gotten her, though it had before displayed unequivocal marks of attachment to her, and seems then to have met the sad fate that in one form or another is the usual lot of all pets on the first temporary and even unintentional discontinuance of special care for their safety. It is rather a late breeder ; not beginning to build till towards the end of April or early in May. The nest is placed in low bushes or hedges, and sometimes in trees, and composed on the outside, of coarse fibrous roots, interwoven with wool and green moss, and is lined with finer roots, horsehair and a few feathers but for that of a Finch the structure wants neatness, if it may not be called clumsy. The eggs are from four to six in number, white or pale french-white, blotched, spotted and speckled chiefly near the larger end with dark GREENFINCH. 107 reddish-brown and purplish-grey ; the markings being often disposed in a zone : they vary much in shape, being often greatly elongated, and measure from '97 to "68 by from •57 to -53 in. The young are fed from the first entirely upon soft seeds, and by thus destroying countless weeds this species does good service to the gardener and farmer. As the season ad- vances the broods support themselves in company with their parents on vegetable diet — not always of a harmless kind. Later still they unite in flocks, and consorting with Bunt- ings and other Finches, feed in corn-fields and stubble, till the privations of winter drive them to the barn-door and stack-yard. They generally roost in evergreen trees or shrubs, constantly returning to the same spot, and, as Selby has remarked, before retiring for the night, they quit the company of their associates and make many ringing flights round their resting station — a habit however which is com- mon to several other kinds of birds. A partial separation of the sexes is observable in winter though not to the same extent as in the Chaffinch.* A considerable immigration to the Eastern Counties takes place every autumn, but whether the strangers are of foreign extraction, or bred in the northern parts of this island is unknown. The Greenfinch is plentiful in all such cultivated parts of Great Britain and Ireland as are adjacent to gardens and small woods. Of late years it has been found in several of the Hebrides, where it was said not formerly to exist, and it may possibly occur in most of them. It is a winter-visitant to Orkney, and though until recently exceedingly scarce in Shetland has now earned the same character in that group of islands. It has likewise appeared several times in winter in the Faeroes, but only since the year 1865. In Norway it breeds so far as Nordland ; and, though in most districts a summer- visitant, large flocks are said to winter in the * Neville Wood (Brit. Song Birds, p. 387) states that each nest usually, though he cannot say always, contains birds of the same sex, and that the same is the case with a few other species of the family. This assertion however re- quires corroboration before it can be acc< pted. 10S FRINGILLIDJE. southern lowlands. In Sweden its northern range does not seem to he so extensive, hut it is common in the central and southern parts. It occurs pretty generally, though sparingly, throughout Finland, excepting in the north, and is thought occasionally to winter there. The same may be said of it in Russia, but it appears to become rare on the eastern slopes of the Ural mountains, and not to shew itself further in Siberia than the river Ob*, nor has it been met with beyond the Talgyche mountains in the Caucasus. In South Russia it is said to be rare in summer, though a common bird of double-passage. Yet it would appear to breed in Asia Minor, and is abundant in some parts of Palestine in winter, dis- appearing however in spring. In Greece it remains all the year round, its numbers receiving a great increase in winter ; but it is not known to cross the Mediterranean towards its eastern end. In Algeria it breeds plentifully, and is found also in Morocco, but the birds which inhabit North- Western Africa, being somewhat smaller in size and rather brighter in plumage than their European brethren, have been recog- nized by some ornithologists as forming a distinct species, named by Dr. Cabanis Ligurinus aurantiiventris. Mr. Dresser, however, after examining a large series of specimens and availing himself of the experience of the more modern Mauritanian and Iberian travellers, thinks that this specific distinction cannot be maintained. It has been observed as a straggler to Madeira, and both in Portugal and Spain it is common all the year round, while throughout the rest of Europe its distribution needs no further remark. * Pallas says it occurs in Kamchatka, and in the islands to the eastward, but there is little doubt that he was herein mistaken, and that the bird sent to him from the former locality was one of the two allied, but yet distinct species in- habiting Eastern Asia and its adjacent islands, the smaller of which — the Fringilla sinica of Linnaeus — was observed by Prof. Radde on the A moor. Herr von Kittlitz also, the naturalist of a Russian Expedition, in 1827, to the Pacific, fell into the same error, stating (Mem. Acad. Petersb. par Saw etrang. i. p. 241) that he found F. r/ris rather numerous on the coast of Boninsima - an island between four and five hundred miles east of Japan; but in the account of his tge, published in 1859 (Denkwurdigk. u.s.w. ii. p. 182), he corrected the mistake and referred his bird to the F. kawaraliiba of Temminck, the larger of the two species above spoken of. GREENFINCH. 109 The male has the bill of a dull flesh-colour, darkest at the tip : the hides hazel : the lores dusky-black ; the forehead golden-green ; the crown of the head, neck, mantle, scapulars and back, olive-green clouded Avith hair-brown ; the upper and least wiug-coverts bright golden-green, the outer edge of the wings gamboge-yellow ; the wing-quills blackish-brown, tipped with brownish-grey, — the tertials bordered broadly with hair-brown, the secondaries narrowly with olive-green, and the primaries with brilliant gamboge-yellow, for the basal two-thirds of their length ; the rump and upper tail- coverts bright golden-green ; the two middle tail-quills blackish-brown bordered with brownish-grey ; the rest have the basal half gamboge-yellow, the terminal part blackish- brown edged with brownish-grey : the sides of the head and ear-coverts ashy-grey mixed with green ; the chin, throat and breast, bright golden-green, clouded with ashy- grey and passing into gamboge-yellow on the belly ; the vent white tinged with yellow ; the lower tail-coverts straw- coloured, mixed with white; the sides of the body and the thighs light brownish-ochreous ; the lower wing-coverts and the lower surface of the basal half of the tail-quills pale yellow : legs, toes and claws, pale wood-brown. The whole length of an adult male is six inches or a little more ; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and a half: the second, third and fourth primaries very nearly equal ; the fifth an eighth of an inch shorter than the fourth, and the sixth a quarter of an inch shorter than the fifth : the tail very decidedly forked. In the female, which is a rather smaller bird, the bill is pale brown ; the upper plumage generally hair-brown, tinged only with golden-green on the upper and least wing-coverts and on the rump ; the yellow edging of the primaries and base of the tail-quills remains, though it is less bright ; the throat, breast and belly, pale brown, the last tinged with greenish-3 T ellow ; lower tail-coverts dull white. Young birds in their first plumage are generally of a light ochraceous-brown with clouded spots of darker-brown above, and beneath especially, on the throat, breast and belly 110 FRINGILLID.E. with elongated brown patches a few clouded spots are also to be seen on the back. Young males after their first moult are intermediate in the general tone of colour between that of the adult male and the female, but the yellow colour on the primaries does not extend so far along each feather.* The vignette represents the nest of the Hawfinch. * It is not intended here to disturb the generic divisions of the FrinyiUidtu adopted in former Editions of this work. To do so satisfactorily would require a closer study of the family as a whole than is now in the power of the Editor to pro- secute. He however thinks it right to say that he believes the inclusion of the Greenfinch in the genus Coccothraustes, of which the Hawfinch is the typical if not the only species, to rest upon superficial grounds, and would decidedly prefer the separation of the Greenfinch therefrom. In this case the generic term Ligurinus, bestowed by Koch in 1816 (Saugth. u. Yog. Baierns, p. 229), takes precedence of Chlorospiza given by Bonaparte. That of Chloris, applied by Cuvier in 1800 (Lecons d'Anat. Comp. tab. ii.), has been objected to from its similarity to the Chlora of botanists, but if it be used another specific term needs to be found, and accordingly that conferred by Swain son in 1837 (Hist, and Classif. of Birds, ii. p. 281) should be added, and the species will then stand as Chloris flavigaster — for the various epithets by which the eldest Brehm had pre- viously tried to distinguish the indistinguishable " subs})ecies" of this bird should lie disregarded by every one who has at heart the simplification of nomenclatural puzzles. SERIN. PASSERES. Ill FRINGILLIDJi. Serinus hortulanus, K. L. Koch*. THE SERIN. Sekinus, K. L. Kochf. — Bill hard, strong, short, somewhat conical, but very broad at the base and with the distal half suddenly diminishing to the tip ; mandibles nearly equal in size, but the upper a little longer than the lower ; edges plain. Nostrils basal, supernal, round and hidden by projecting and recurved frontal plumes. Gape straight. Wings with the first primary so small as to seem wanting ; the second, third and fourth nearly equal, but the third a trifle the longest — none of them however much surpassing the fifth, which on the contrary is considerably longer than the sixth. Tail moderate, rather deeply forked. Tarsus slender, and shorter than the middle toe, scutellate in front, covered at the side by a single plate. Claws small and rather weak. The Serin, a Finch closely allied to the Canary-bird and long known to inhabit many parts of Europe, has of late years been observed to be extending its range on the continent, and, as in such a case might well be expected, has appeared in England. The first recorded example is that by Mr. W. Hazel | (Nat. * Siiugthiere und Viigel Baierns, p. 229 (181(5). If however this species be rightly identified with the Fringilla flaveola of Linnaeus (Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 321) that epithet of course has priority over Koch's. f Op. cit. p. 228. i This gentleman seems to have been very fortunate in announcing the appear- ance in England of exotic Finches. In tin' same note in which he, almost 112 FRTNGILLIDjE. 1853, p. 20), who said that a male was caught, iu April 1852, near Eastuey Fort, about a mile from Portsmouth, and having been paired with a hen Canary-bird produced a brood of mules, which unfortunately deceased. On June 20th, 1859, as recorded by Mr. Bond (Zool. p. 7105), a Serin, believed to be a female, was caught near Brighton and taken to Mr. Pratt of that town, while Mr. Rowley stated (Ibis, 1861, p. 113) that he had been told of three other examples of the species, taken by Brighton birdcatchers and cast aside from ignorance of their value. Mr. Bond also in the same com- munication mentions having seen a male captured soon after the severe storm in October, 1859, near London. Mr. Cecil Smith (B. Somers. p. 180) states that in January or February, 1866, he was shewn an example said to have been shot at Taunton, which passed into the possession of Mr. Byne, of Bishop's Hull, and was by him submitted to Mr. Gould's inspection. Mr. Monk announced (Zool. s.s. p. 229) the capture, at Hove near Brighton, on April 19th, 1866, of a hen Serin, which he saw alive a few hours after- wards, and this, with another of those obtained in that neighbourhood, is now in his collection, where, thanks to his kindness, the Editor has seen them. Mr. Bond too re- corded (Zool. s.s. p. 1984) another example which he saw at a bird-stuffer's at Brighton, taken, he was told, in April 1869. This is very likely the same as one noticed, according to Mr. Harting (Handb. Br. B. p. 112), by Mr. Lucas as obtained at Worthing on May 4th in that year — though, as will be seen, the dates do not agree. On April 16th, 1873, a hen, which was afterwards brought to the Editor by Mr. Borrer, was procured at Brighton and is now in his collection. In regarding all these occurrences it must, however, be incidentally, mentions the first occurrence of the SeriD, he stated that he pos- sessed an example of Criihagra chrysopyga (a West-African bird) taken near Portsmouth, and also that a specimen either of Passu' kispaniolensis or of Petronia stulta—he seems uncertain which — was killed a few years before, about five miles from that place, and was then in the Museum of its Philosophical Society. Notice of this last, he added, he sent to the Author of this work, but as In did not think fit to include it in his last Edition, the present Editor deems it unnecessary to give the statement any further attention. SERIN. 113 borne iu mind that the Serin is a very popular cage-bird on the continent, and has doubtless often been imported to this country, where if one escaped it might easily subsist for a longer or shorter time. On the other hand, must it be remarked that the majority of examples recorded have occurred in spring — the very season when a species like this would in all probability reach England — and the dates accordingly point to its appearances as voluntary acts. The steady progress, mostly in a northward direction, which on the continent this bird has of late years been making is attested by so many trustworthy naturalists that it must be taken as fully established, and since this fact has been especially observed in Germany — a country wherein orni- thology has for so long a time been carefully studied — the less hesitation should be felt at its acceptance. The evi- dence is too long for a summary of it even to be inserted here.* Enough to say that there are many districts in which the species is now common, though within but a few years it was rare, if not entirely unknown in them. Of English ornithologists few have enjoyed better oppor- tunities of becoming acquainted with this bird than Mr. Dresser, who has studied its habits in Western Germany, in Styria, and in Spain. The following is the account which he gives of them in his admirable ' Birds of Europe.' " The Serin Finch inhabits the foot of the mountains skirting the plains, but does not appear to affect the plains themselves ; nor is it found in the mountains, being there replaced by the Citril Finch f. It is usually to be met with in the orchards and gardens and in the vineyards, frequently in gardens which are surrounded by houses, in which last locality it is tolerably tame — though, so far as my own * The chief recent authorities for this ami Beveral other points of interest are Herr Julius Hoffmann (Naumannia, 1852, iii. pp. 58-64), Capt. von Homeyer (Journ. fiir Orn. 1862, pp. 97 106 ; 1867, p. 287 ; Zool. Gart. 1868, pp. 199- 202), Dr. Rohnhert (Journ. fur Orn. 1864, pp. 896-398), Pastor Jiickel (Zool. Gart. 1868, pp. 405-408), Dr. Liebe (Journ. fiir Orn. 1875, p. 206) and M. Neree Qui pat's ' Monographie du Cini ' i Paris : 1 875). f This species also is said to have occurred in England, but through a mistake (Zool. s.s. pp. 1984, 2022), VOL. II. W 114 PRINGILLTDJE. experience goes, it is very shy and difficult of approach outside the town. During the fortnight I spent ;it Staufen in Breisgau (Baden), in June last [1875], I never got within range of one outside the town, though on several occasions I saw and heard it. In the town itself I several times saw specimens; hut as they doubtless had nests in the neigh- bourhood, and as, besides, it would not well do to shoot in the town, I did not obtain a specimen. It may easily be recognized by its call-note and flight. The former some- what resembles that of the Canary, but may easily he dis- tinguished by any one who has heard it. Its song is poor, and lacks both depth and melody, being merely a con- tinuous twittering warble, generally uttered, it would seem, as the bird is seated on the topmost spray of some tree, usually a fruit-tree. Its flight is exceedingly swift, and may not inaptly he compared to that of a Sand- Martin, which it far more nearly resembles than that of any other Finch. It sometimes sings whilst on the wing ; that is, it will fly up from the spray on which it has been seated like a Tree-Pipit, and will continue its song during the short time it is in the air. " It feeds chiefly on seeds of various kinds ; at least, all those I have at different times shot, and the contents of whose stomachs I examined, had been feeding on these alone- grass-seeds and those of the various wild plants and weeds, chiefly such as are oily; and it appears always to shell the seeds and discard the husks before swallowing them. It seeks after food in fields, gardens, and especially in the vine- yards, in which last it is usually to be found. '• The nest is a very neat, compact little structure, very carefully made and neatly shaped. It is built of fine roots and grass-bents, and neatly lined with feathers and horse- hair. The outer portion of the nest appears to be inter- woven with spiders' webs : and a few bits of lichen and grey moss are affixed here and there. A nest in the possession of All-. Carl Sachse, taken near Frankfort, is built in the fork lie! ween three upright small branches of a lilac tree, and is constructed entirely of line grass-stems and rootlets, intermixed with Gotton and woollen threads. These latter SERIN. 115 are utilized more especially to bind the structure to the branches, which is most effectually and strongly done, one of the branches being encircled at least a dozen times with a long piece of tolerably stout woollen thread. The lining consists merely of somewhat finer grass-stems than those used in the construction of the exterior portion." The eggs, said to be four or five in number, measure from •63 to *6 by *49 to *45 in., and are of a pale greenish- white, or suffused with light reddish-brown so as to appear of a yellowish cream-colour, on which are blotches, spots and specks of a dark reddish-brown — sometimes nearly black. This species is but rare in Belgium* and as yet does not seem to have bred nearer to us than Luxemburg. A single example has been obtained in Heligoland and two in Sleswick ; but it is rarely if ever to be met with in North Germany, and it does not become common till we ascend the Rhine to Mainz. In that neighbourhood however and around Frankfort-on-the-Maine, it is in summer pretty plentiful. Passing over Thuringia and most part of Saxony, where it does not seem to appear, it has of late years shewn itself abundantly in Lusatia and Silesia. Thence to the south-east it is common in Bohemia and Galizia, but rare in Transsylvania ; nor is it very frequent in Bulgaria, though it becomes more plentiful in Bessarabia and Roumelia, and in Greece— where it is said to be resident — it is common, as it also is in Asia Minor and Palestine — but in the last it is only found in winter and near the sea, while a nearly allied species, >S V . aurifrons, takes its place as a resident. It has, however, been observed in Sinai and in Egypt as far as Cairo. In North- Western Africa from Tunis to Morocco, it is much more abundant, and at Tangier immense flights cross the Strait of Gibraltar in spring and autumn. Nevertheless a considerable number • Temminck's assertion as to its occurrence in Holland is probably (as Mr. Labouchere suggests to the writer) explained by 1 1 ■ ■ facl that in bis time the name of that country in common speech included whal is now known as Belgium. The bird, which Faber killed at Husavik in Eceland and referred to this species, was most likelj a young Redpoll, yet there have been ornithologists who reco nized in tin' specimen, which they never saw, a oe\l species ! 116 FRING1LLID/E. remain to breed in Algeria. In winter it would seem to visit all the islands of the Mediterranean from the Balearic group to the eastward. It is found in Portugal and is numerous and resident in many parts of Spain, as well as throughout the southern and central parts of France ; but farther to the northward, except towards the German frontier, it is only a straggler. In Italy it is generally distributed, but partially so in Switzerland, though said to breed yearly and commonly about Geneva. As before intimated it is abun- dant in South Germany, especially on the Upper and Middle Rhine, and the same is the case in the Austrian dominions. The cock has the bill horn-coloured, with the lower man- dible paler : the irides dark brown : immediately above the nostrils is a transverse line of dull greyish-olive, which, excepting a patch on the forehead and a streak above and below each eye of bright gamboge-yellow, is the prevailing colour of the head, ear-coverts and neck — being mixed how- ever with yellow on the nape ; the mantle and back are dark greyish-brown, each feather being more or less broadly edged with yellow ; the least wing-coverts are blackish- brown tipped with yellow ; the rest with the quill-feathers, both of wings and tail, greyish-brown, narrowly bordered with primrose-yellow, which on the tertials is broader but inclining to greyish-buff; the rump is bright gamboge- yellow ; the upper tail-coverts blackish-brown with yellow edges ; the chin, throat, sides of the neck beneath the ear- coverts, and breast, are bright gamboge-yellow, streaked on the sides of the breast and flanks with blackish-brown, and paling on the belly which, with the vent and the lower tail-coverts, is white ; the inner wing-coverts are greyish, tinged with yellow : the legs and toes pale brown, the claws darker. The hen is very similar, but has much less yellow, and that not so bright in tint; the middle wing-coverts also are edged with pale buff. In winter the yellow of the cock, especially on the head, is much obscured by greyish-olive, and on the wing-coverts inclines to pale buff. The whole length is about four inches and a half; that of the wing from the carpal joint two inches and four-fifths. GOLDFINCH. PASSERES. 117 FUISUILL1DM. Carduelis elegans, Stephens*. THE GOLDFINCH. Carduelis elegans. Carduelts, Brissonf. — Dill hard, nearly conical but slightly compressed, tin- point slender and sharp. Nostrils basal, lateral, round, and hidden by project- ing and recurved plumes. Gape slightly curved. Wings rather long and pointed : the first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting ; the second, third and fourth nearly equal, but the second the longest. Tail more or less moderate, and forked. Tarsus short and rather stout, scutellate in front, covered at the side by a single plate. Claws moderate. The genus Carduelis, founded by Brisson to receive the Goldfinch and some other birds, has been pretty generally adopted by naturalists, though many have still farther sub- divided it. Gay plumage, lively habits, an agreeable form and song, with an endearing disposition, arc such strong recommenda- tions, that the Goldfinch has been, and will probably long be, one of the most favourite cage-birds. So well does this species bear confinement that it has been known to live ten years in captivity, continuing in song the greater part of each * Gen. Zool. xiv. p. 30 (1826). t Orn. iii. p. 50 (1760). 118 fringiludj:. year.* For some centuries there have heen persons who have amused themselves with teaching it a variety of tricks, the commonest heing that of drawing up water for its own use in a toy bucket f, or of raising the lid of the box which con- tains its food, while still greater ingenuity has been wasted in teaching it feats of a character far more unnatural |, and therefore to a naturalist eminently distasteful. All these qualities, combined with the ease with which it can be caught, render the Goldfinch one of the most important subjects of the bird-dealer's traffic, and the number netted — chiefly in the southern counties- — in autumn and spring is enormous. Mr. Hussey in 1860 (Zool. p. 7144) put the average annual captures of this species near Worthing at about 1154 dozens — nearly all being cock-birds — and it would seem that a still larger number used to be yearly taken within ten miles of Brighton, where, according to Mr. Swaysland (a witness before the Committee of the House of Commons on Bird-Protection), a boy could catch forty dozens * Gesner, not on his own authority however, tells of one which was twenty- three years old ! t From this fact the bird is fancifully known in some parts of England as the " Draw-water" ; but its commonest local name perhaps is " King Harry" or " Redcap," while in some of the Midland counties it is termed " Proud Tailor." In Sir T. Browne's time it seems to have been known as a " Fool's coat." + Syme, writing in 1823, states (Treat. r>r. Song-Birds, p. 182) that a few years before a certain Sieur Roman exhibited a number of trained Finches (Gold- finches, Linnets and Canaries) which enacted some wonderful parts : — One seemed dead, and was held up by the tail or claw, without exhibiting any sign of life ; a second stood on its head with its claws in the air ; a third imitated a Duti-h milk- maid going to market with pails on its shoulders ; a fourth mimicked a Venetian girl looking out of a window ; a fifth appeared as a soldier, and mounted guard as a sentinel ; a sixth acted as a cannoneer, and, with cap on bead, firelock on shoulder and match in claw, discharged a small cannon. The same bird also feigned to have been wounded, and was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it were, to the hospital ; after which it flew away before the company. A seventh turned a kind of windmill ; and the last stood in the midst of some fireworks which were discharged all round it, without exhibiting the least symptom of fear. In our own time other "performing" birds have brought their masters much gain and passing credit from a foolish public. The only thing which can reconcile the naturalist fco witnessing such displays, violating the laws of nature as they do equally with that melancholy exhibition ironically called the " Happy Family,'' is the apparently well-founded belief in the docility of the Goldfinch being so great that little if any cruelty is required to "perfect'' its education. GOLDFINCH. 119 ill a morning. In that neighbourhood, however, it has now become comparatively scarce owing, in part, to the fatal practice of catching the birds prior to or during the breed- ing-season, and not an hundred may be seen even at the most favourable time of year.* In spring, and early summer, the Goldfinch frequents gardens and orchards. Hurdis wrote: — " I love to see the little goldfinch pluck The ground sil's feather'd seed, and twit and twit; And then in bow'r of apple blossoms perch'd, Trim his gay suit, and pay us with a song. I would not hold him pris'ner for the world." Village Curate (1788), p. A\. The Goldfinch builds a very neat nest, generally in an apple- or pear-tree, but very frequently near the end of a leafy bough of a horse-chestnut or sycamore ; and more seldom in a hedge, a thick bush in a copse, or an evergreen in a shrub- bery. A nest before me is formed on the outside with fine twigs of fir, green bents, fine roots, wool, and pieces of white worsted, interwoven together ; and is lined with willow-down, feathers and numerous long hairs, f The eggs are four or five in number, of a french white, with a few spots and lines of pale purple and dark reddish- brown, but occasionally boldly and much more marked or partly suffused with brownish-purple ; they measure from •72 to -6 by from -53 to -47 in. * Report from the Select Committee on Wild Birds Protection &c. Ordered bj the House of Commons to be printed, 23 July 1873. pp. 102-108. t It has been well observed that " birds will in general take the materials for building which they can most easily procure. " Bolton says (Harmonia Ruralis, pn F. p. vi.): -"On the tenth of May, a.t>. 17