Female. back black, deeply edged with pale chestnut-brown. Lesser wing-coverts deep orange-brown, the row imposed upon the greater coverts having their tips white, and forming an oblique bar across each wing. Greater coverts and quills brownish-black, edged with pale chestnut-brown. Tail clove-brown, margined with yellowish-brown. Lower part of the back, and rump yellowish-grey. Belly and vent smoke-grey. wood-brown. Fig. 5. The female. Natural size. Legs Head and nape of the neck light broccoli-brown. Above the eyes is a streak of straw-yellow. Upper plumage yellowish-brown, inclining to broccoli-brown, with the centres of the feathers darkest. Throat and middle of the belly greyish-white; the sides dashed with broccolibrown. TREE-SPARROW. PASSER MONTANUS, Ray. PLATE LV. FIG. 2. Passer montanus, Raii Syn. p. 87. 15.—Briss. 3. p. 79. Fringilla montana, Linn. 1. p. 234. 37.-Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 925. sp. 27.— 2. Loxia Hamburgia, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 854. sp. 68. Le Friquet, Buff. Ois. v. 3. p. 489. t. 29. f. 2.—Id. Pl. Enl. 267. fig. 1. Gros-Bec Friquet, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. v. 1. p. 354. Der Feldsperling, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 3. p. 124.—Meyer, Tasschenb. De Ringmusch, Sepp. Nederl. Vög. p. 79. Hamburgh Tree-Creeper, Albin, 3. t. 24. Hamburgh Grosbeak, Lath. Syn. 3. p. 149. 64. Tree or Mountain Sparrow, Br. Zool. 1. No. 128.-Arct. Zool. 2. No. 246. Will. (Angl.) p. 252. t. 25.-Lewin's Br. Birds, 2. t. 78.—Lath. Syn. 3. p. 252. 2.—Id. Supp.-Don, Br. Birds, 4. t. 88.-Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 158. Shaw's Zool. 9. p. 432. t. 64. f. 2. THIS species is but partially distributed, and far from being abundant, even in those districts where it has long been known as indigenous, although many authors have asserted the contrary, and have described it as numerous in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. It may indeed be found in each of these counties, but not in such numbers as might naturally be inferred from the accounts of preceding writers. MONTAGU, in the Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, has given a very minute and interesting description of the peculiar habits of this bird, and has proved that the female is in plumage not distinguishable from the male bird, although former writers had described it as differing in the same degree as the female of the Common Sparrow does from the male of that species. The eastern, and some of the northern, counties seem to be the extent of its range in this country, as I have not been able to trace its residence in any of the southern or western ones. Specimens have been sent to me from the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and I have seen it in parts of the county of Durham, but not farther to the northward *. It is a bird of retired habits, and is never found to frequent villages or other dwellings like the common species, but is generally to be met with where old trees (particularly pollards, hollowed by decay) are abundant, as in the holes of these it finds a congenial retreat, and proper situation for its nest, of which Nest, &c. the materials are hay and straw intermixed, with a lining of feathers. The eggs are four or five in number, similar in colour to those of the House-Sparrow, but rather smaller.-The food Food. of this species consists of various seeds and grain, and the buds of trees; but during the breeding season it destroys quantities of larvæ, moths, and others of the insect tribe, on which its callow young are principally supported.-Its form is more slender than that of the preceding bird, and its motions full of spirit and activity; like it also, the Tree-Spar * Several instances of its capture in the neighbourhood of Newcastle have since been communicated to me. General description. row possesses no song, and its usual note is somewhat similar in tone to that of the former, but rather shriller. It is plentiful in France, Holland, and other parts of the Continent, extending its range southward to Spain and Italy. PLATE 55. Fig. 2. Natural size. Crown of the head and nape of the neck deep chestnutbrown, with a tinge of grey. Space between the bill and eyes, spot behind the ear, throat, and under part of the neck, black. Sides of the neck, and collar on the nape of the same, white. Under parts greyish-white. Upper part of the back having one web of the feathers black, and the other pale chestnut, inclining to yellowishbrown. Wing-coverts chestnut-brown, with the tips of the greater and the lower row of the lesser ones white, and forming two bars across the wings. Quills and secondaries blackish-brown, margined with yellowishbrown. Lower part of the back, and rump, yellowishgrey. Tail hair-brown, margined paler. Legs pale or wood-brown. GENUS FRINGILLA, LINN. FINCH. GENERIC CHARACTERS. BLIL conical, longer than deep, straight, and pointed ; cutting edges entire, and forming a straight commissure. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, partly hidden by the frontal plumes. Tail slightly forked. Legs having the tarsi of mean length, with the front toes divided; adapted for hopping or perching. Claws sharp. Under this genus rank Fringilla cœlebs, Fring. montefringilla, and a variety of other species, distinguished by a bill less strong and thick, and less swollen at the base, than that of the typical forms of the next subfamily (Coccothraustina). Their habits are also less arboreal; and most of them obtain their food (consisting of the scattered seeds of grasses and cruciform plants) upon the ground, where they move by hopping with great facility. The males of many species undergo a change, or rather variation of plumage, in the spring, produced by shedding the extreme tips of the feathers, and acquiring after that process an additional brightness and intensity of colour. CHAFFINCH. FRINGILLA CELEBS, Linn. PLATE LIV. FIGS. 6. 7. Fringilla cœlebs, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 318.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 901. sp. 5.-Lath. Ind. Ornith. v. 1. p. 437. 12.-Raii Syn. p. 88. 16. A.—Will. p. 186. t. 45. f. 4.-Briss. 3. p. 184. 36. Le Pinson, Buff. Ois. v. 4. p. 109. t. 4.-Id. Pl. Enl. 54. f. 1. the male. Gros-Bec Pinson, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. v. 1. p. 357. Gemeine Fink, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 3. p. 75.-Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. v. 1. p. 150.-Id. Vög. Deut. v. 1. f. 1. and 2. male and female in spring plumage.-Frisch. t. 1. f. 1. Scheld Fink, Sepp. Nederl. Vög. p. 141. Chaffinch, Br. Zool. 1. No. 125. Arct. Zool. 2. p. 381. F.-Will. (Angl) p. 253. 45.-Albin. 1. t. 63.—Lath. Syn. 3. p. 259. 10.-Id. Supp. p. 165. -Lewin's Br. Birds, 2. t. 79.-Walc. Syn. t. 217.-Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 12.—Mont. Ornith. Dict. v. 1.—Bewick's Br. Birds, p. 160.—Low's Faun. Orcad. p. 12.-Shaw's Zool. 9. p. 442. 65. fig. 1. PROVINCIAL-Spink, Beechfinch, Pink, Twink, Skelly, Shell-Apple, THIS lively bird is very common in all the open and cultivated parts of the kingdom, and is well known for its early song, which, although short, and consisting only of three or four notes, is grateful to the ear, from associations connected with the period at which it usually commences. All the British ornithologists describe this species as permanently resident with us, and nowhere subject to that separation of the sexes, and the consequent equatorial movement of the fe males, which is known to take place in Sweden and other northern countries. The fact, however, is otherwise, as the experience of a series of years has evinced that these birds, in a general point of view, obey the same natural law in the north of England. In Northumberland and Scotland, this separation takes place about the month of November, and from that period till the return of spring, few females are to be seen, and those few always in distinct societies.—The males remain, and are met with, during the winter, in immense flocks, feeding with other granivorous birds in the stubble lands, as long as the weather continues mild, and the ground free from snow; and resorting, upon the approach of storm, to farm-yards, and other places of refuge and supply. This separation of the sexes, I am induced to believe, takes place in many other species, with respect to their migratory movements, as I have before remarked in the account of the Snow-Bunting. This appears also to be the case with the Woodcock, having observed that the first flight of these birds (which seldom remains longer than for a few days to recruit, and then passes southward), consists chiefly of females; whilst, on the contrary, the subsequent and latest flights (which continue with us), are principally composed of males. It has been noticed by several authors, that the arrival of the males, in a number of our summer visitants, precedes that of the females by many days; a fact from which we might infer that in such species a similar separation exists between the sexes during their equatorial migration. As these birds are very early breeders, the male Chaffinch utters his love-notes almost as soon as the Thrush or Goldcrested Regulus.-They build in various situations upon the trees and bushes, sometimes amidst the ivy encircling their trunks, at other times in the forks of smaller branches, and very frequently in old apple-trees, overgrown with moss and Nest, &c. lichens.-The nest exhibits great symmetry and beauty, and is formed of different mosses and lichens, closely interwoven with wool, and warmly lined with feathers and hair; in its |