Fringilla montifringilla, LINNÆUS; Le Pinson d'Ardenne,
BUFFON; Der Bergfink, BECHSTEIN.
This bird is six inches and a quarter in length, of which the tail
measures two and a half and the beak half an inch; this is yellow, with
a black tip. The feet, nine lines high, are dark flesh-coloured; all the
feathers of the head and cheeks are black with reddish edges, wider and
more distinct in young males, and becoming fainter from age, almost
disappear in old ones, whose heads become quite black; the tail rather
forked, and black.
The colours of the female are more uniform; she is brown where the male
is black, and only a rusty colour where he is red.
Independently of the varieties produced by age, and which are tolerably
numerous, without being very remarkable, there are some more remarked,
such as those with a white head, a back quite white, &c.
HABITATION.--In their wild state this species is scattered throughout
Europe; however, it is most probable that in the summer they only
inhabit the northern parts. During the three other seasons they are
found everywhere in Germany, particularly where there are large
forests. When beech-mast is plentiful in Thuringia the mountain
finches assemble in immense numbers, it is supposed more than
100,000.
In the house they are kept in a cage or not, according as they are
esteemed; where they are common they are not thought worthy of one,
but allowed to range at will.
FOOD.--Wild, and in confinement, it is the same as the chaffinch's.
MODE OF TAKING.--This bird's note of call is _ïak, ïak, quääk_, and as
the two first sounds are the same as that of the chaffinch, they will
come at its call, and fly in its company. They also afford the best
sport with a net, for in autumn hundreds may be taken at one cast. In
winter they are caught near barns under nets, or even under common
sieves; and in spring on a decoy bush, at the call of the chaffinch,
if one of its own species cannot be procured.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--We cannot boast of sweetness in the song of
this bird, as it consists of low whistling, or a kind of warbling,
intermixed at intervals with a shrill "_raitch_," the whole somewhat
resembling the first exercises of the chaffinch; but this wretched
warbling may be improved by education. A mountain finch placed by the
side of a chaffinch that sung well, learnt to imitate it tolerably,
but I must confess that it never attained great perfection. I should
warn bird-fanciers who wish to keep these birds for the beauty of
their plumage, not to let them range with many companions, for they
are quarrelsome, and very lavish in distributing severe pecks,
especially if food is not very abundant. In Thuringia they are kept
in cages to be employed as lures in the area or decoy enclosure. It
is said that it is easier to teach them to go and come than the
chaffinch.