Migratory Birds of Madeira and the Canaries. 211 



for about an hour, when the trees became larger. We had got 

 nearly through this belt of trees, and were coming to the open 

 space at the foot of the volcanic cone, where only a few retama 

 bushes are to be found, when I suddenly heard a loud note of a 

 strange bird at some distance to the left of the track. I imme- 

 diately went in pursuit, gun in hand, and returned in about five 

 minutes, having killed a fine specimen of the bird I was in search 

 of. I spent the whole day wandering about in the upper part 

 of this forest, and killed some seven or eight specimens. Even 

 here it is not very common ; and I believe it seldom or never goes 

 lower down. It feeds on the seeds of the pine, and breaks up 

 the cone with its powerful beak in order to get at them, remind- 

 ing me of the Crossbill. Later in the year it frequents the 

 caiiadas, where it feeds on the seeds of the retama, which at 

 the time I was there was only in bloom. I afterwards saw more 

 of them in the pine-forest above Chasna, and procured other 

 specimens. Mr. Crotch tells me that when he was encamped 

 on the caiiadas collecting coleoptera, he procured a nest with 

 eggs ; the latter, he says, more resemble those of a Shrike than 

 any of the Finches. The nest, I believe he told me, was built 

 in a retama bush. It is known to the goatherds, who tend 

 their flocks in the highest parts of the mountain, by the name 

 of " Pajaro de la cumbre.^' 



46. t^RiNGiLLA TiNTiLLON, Webb & Berth. 



Orn. Can. p. 21 ; Bolle, J. fiir Orn. 1854, p. 457, and 1857, 

 p. 315 ; Vern. Hare. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, 1855, xv. 

 p. 437. 



Having now gathered together a good series of the Chaffinches 

 from each of the three Atlantic groups of islands, the Azores, Ma- 

 deira, and Canaries, I have carefully compared the specimens, and 

 have no hesitation in saying that there is but one species common 

 to all. In each group I find slight variations of colour among the 

 individuals. The tail-feathers in some are much whiter than in 

 others ; also the green ou the back is of much greater extent in 

 some than in others ; there is, too, a slight variation in the size 

 of the beaks ; but I can find no difl'erences which are charac- 

 teristic of the birds of any one group of islands. It is a very 



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