. A history of British birds . tinged with yellow, while the colouring of the breastis much less bright. The whole length is six inches; that of the wing, threeinches and three-eighths ; the third and fourth primariesare equal and the longest in the wing, but the fifth is nearlyequal to them and longer than the second, which again islonger than the sixth: the first being, as already statedamong the generic characters, almost obsolete. The female has the head and back hair-brown, darkest onthe sides, with a very perceptible pale patch on the nape ;the rump and tail-coverts are much more dingy t
. A history of British birds . tinged with yellow, while the colouring of the breastis much less bright. The whole length is six inches; that of the wing, threeinches and three-eighths ; the third and fourth primariesare equal and the longest in the wing, but the fifth is nearlyequal to them and longer than the second, which again islonger than the sixth: the first being, as already statedamong the generic characters, almost obsolete. The female has the head and back hair-brown, darkest onthe sides, with a very perceptible pale patch on the nape ;the rump and tail-coverts are much more dingy than in themale ; the lower parts are of a dull fawn colour, and theblack of the quills is less pure, but the two white bars onthe wings are rather less conspicuous. The young in their nestling plumage much resemble theadult female, but their colours are less vivid and moreblended. Both this species and the next have some long, fine hairsiXrowinof amouG the feathers at the back of the head. BRAMBLING. PASSERBS. 75 Fringilla montifringilla, Linnaeus*. THE BRAMBLING. Fringilla montifringilla. The Brambltng or Mountain-Finch, as some Britishauthors have chosen to call it, is an autumnal visitor tothese islands, coming from the north and passing the winterwith us; but in many places throughout the country itappears very irregularly, both as regards numbers and time ofarrival. It is said to have been seen on the Cumberlandhills as early as the middle of August, but this statement,made in Bewicks work, if it did not arise in error, ca?ihardly be matched elsewhere. Even on the north-east coastof Great Britain it does not usually appear until about the * Syst. Nat. EJ. 12, i. p. 318 (176(3). 76 FRINGTLLTD/E. middle of October, and it is often two months later beforethe largest flocks arrive. Mr. R. Gray says that in the eastof Scotland on its first coming it betakes itself to the highergrounds, but after a time, especially on the approach ofsnow, it descends to the low-lyi
Size: 1315px × 1900px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
