l64 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Coccothraustes chloris. — Green Finch — Abundant everywhere. 

 One of our commonest residents is the Greenfinch, which 

 is found wherever it meets with suitable conditions for its 

 existence, and in the dales it has occurred to an elevation 

 of 1000 feet. It congregates in vast numbers in autumn, 

 at which period large flocks of immigrants cross the North 

 Sea in October and November, and resort to the stubbles to 

 feed in company with other Finches and Linnets ; the old 

 males migrate separately from the females and young. It 

 has also been occasionally noticed during the vernal migration. 

 In the autumn and winter of 1881 an immense concourse 

 of these birds gathered in the stubble fields near the coast, 

 attracted by the grain that had been scattered by a storm 

 during harvest time ; the year 1883 witnessed another great 

 arrival, with Linnets, in October, and in the same month of 

 1887 many were seen at the Teesmouth. Several " rushes " 

 are recorded in the Migration Reports, while in October 1901, 

 a strong migration from the north took place at Redcar, 

 accompanied by Linnets, Siskins, and other small birds. 

 On the Cleveland coast the flocks generally arrive from about 

 east or north-east, in foggy weather being often so greatly 

 exhausted as to drop on the rocks, or on the sands, directly 

 they " make the land." During the spring passage in 1901, 

 there was a great influx at Redcar on the ist of May, with 

 Siskins ; they came from due east, early in the morning, 

 which was misty, with a light easterly breeze, and many were 

 seen sitting on the hedgerows and in the gardens ; in all prob- 

 ability these birds were on their passage further northward. 



An exceptionally late nest, containing young, was reported 

 at Patrington on August 30th 1857. -^^ Redcar, in 1902, 

 a pair of Greenfinches built a nest, and reared their young 

 brood in a garden, close to the entrance gate, and within three 

 feet of the footpath. 



An instance of variation from the ordinary plumage is 

 that of a white example, seen near Bradford, on nth April 

 1890 {Nat. 1890, p. 335), while specimens almost as yellow 

 as canaries have occurred at Beverley. 



As regards varieties of the eggs, the late Canon Atkinson 



