82 CHA CHALA CA— CHAFFINCH 



George IV, to the Gardens of the Zoological Society at its founda- 

 tion. Indeed, it is not at all improbable that there are more living 

 examples at this time in Europe than in Australia, where even 

 when Gould was there he found it to have been extirpated in places 

 where a few years before it had been abundant. 



Additional interest is imparted to this by the discovery in New 

 Zealand of remains originally attributed by Sir R. Owen {Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1865, p. 438) to the Dinornithine group (Moa) under the 

 name of Cnemiornis calcltrans, and subsequently fully described by 

 him (Trans. Zool. Soc. v. pp. 395-404, pis. Ixiii.-lxvii.). The acquisi- 

 tion in 1872 of a further collection of bones of this extinct bird 

 enabled Sir James Hector to recognize in it a lai'ge Goose, probably 

 allied to Cereopsis and of similar habits, but in which the power of 

 flight had become obsolete, and as such he described it before the 

 Wellington Philosophical Society, 18th August 1873 (Trans. N. Zeal 

 Inst. vi. pp. 76-84, pis. x.-xiv.A), communicating his results also to 

 the Zoological Society of London, in whose Proceedings for the same 

 year they will be found (pp. 763-771, pis. Ixv.-lxviii.), as well as to 

 Sir R. Owen, who lost no time in preparing an additional memoir 

 on the subject, subsequently published in that Society's Transactions 

 (ix. pp. 253-272, pis. xxxv.-xxxix.), and acquiescing in Sir James's 

 determination of the position and relations of this remai'kable 

 form. A good many more of its bones have since been obtained, 

 and no doubt can exist on the subject, though the precise epoch at 

 which it became extinct cannot be regarded as settled. 



CHACHALACA or Chiacalacca, so called in Texas from its 

 cry (Coues, Key N. Am. B. p. 573), Ortalis maccalli (see Guan). 



CHAFFINCH, a well-known bird, the Fringilla ccelehs ^ of orni- 

 thology, which may be regarded as the type-form of the Fringillidse 

 (Finch). This handsome and spi"ightly species, which is so 

 common throughout the whole of" Europe, requires no description. 

 Conspicuous by his variegated plumage, his peculiar call-note -, and 

 his glad song, the cock is almost everywhere a favoui'ite. In 

 Algeria our Chaffinch is replaced by a closely-allied species, F. 

 spodogenia, while in the Atlantic Islands it is represented by two 

 others, F. tintillon and F. teydea — all of which, while possessing 



^ This fanciful trivial name was given by Linnaeus on the supposition (which 

 later observations do not entirely coniirni) that in Sweden the hens of the species 

 migrated .southward in autumn, leaving the cocks to lead a celibate life till 

 spring. It is certain, however, that in some localities the sexes live apart during 

 the winter. 



- This call-note, which to many ears sounds like "pink" or " spink," not 

 only gives the bird a name in many parts of Britain, but is also obviously the 

 origin of the German Fink and our Finch. The similar Celtic form Pine is said 

 to have given rise to the Low Latin Pincio, and thence come the Italian Pineione, 

 the Spanish Pinzon, and the French Pinson. 



