GREENFINCH. 163 



destroyed by some boys. Numbers of these birds nest in 

 the heaps of rejected Hme at the whiting works near Beverley. 



A bird so weak and frail as this species is not considered 

 to be of a quarrelsome nature, but a rather remarkable 

 instance occurred in 1901, near Bashall Hall on the Lancashire 

 border, where a pair of Sand Martins dispossessed a Dipper, 

 which had reared a brood, and the Martins afterwards hatched 

 two broods in the same nest (T. Altham, in lilt. 13th 

 February 1902). 



There are several Yorkshire records of white or parti- 

 coloured specimens ; one with silvery plumage is mentioned in 

 Neville Wood's Naturalist, 1837 5 ^^^ ^^v. F. O. Morris noted 

 one at Doncaster in the same year with a white breast and 

 a white band round the nape of the neck ; a white variety 

 was seen near Wilsden, and one at the same place, in 1877, 

 with the upper plumage bluish white, and the lower parts 

 glossy white. An example near Settle, in 1895, had white 

 wings ; and, finally, an albino is recorded from Killinghall, 

 near Harrogate, in 1898. 



The local names are not very numerous, and have all 

 reference to the situations in which it nests : Bank Martin 

 is general ; and Bank Swallow a West Riding term ; it is 

 Pit Martin in Craven ; Sandy in Teesdale ; and Sand or River 

 Swallow is given by Swainson, 1886. 



GREENFINCH. 

 Ligurinus chloris (Z). 



Resident, common, generally and abundantly distributed. A 

 great influx of migrants in autumn. 



Probably the earliest Yorkshire reference to this species 

 is given byTunstall (MS. 1783, p. 66) thus: " Loxia Chloris. — 

 Green Grosbeak. Heard from pretty good authority, that 

 there had been a mongrel between this bird and the canary." 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



