CHAFFINCH. 201 



■windows. These flocks, so noticeable in our stubbles 

 and beech-groves consist, as has been remarked by 

 many authors, almost entirely of females and young 

 birds, and in several instances I have failed to distinguish 

 a single male, but although these, with most of our own 

 residents, leave us for the south during severe weather, 

 I have on more than one occasion observed an influx of 

 male birds, only, during a prolonged batch of frost and 

 snow, as though the intense and lasting cold had driven 

 them also to seek a milder climate. I may further add, 

 that in February, 1864, Mr. Dix remarked a very 

 large flock of chaffinches in a plantation at West 

 HarHng, which consisted entirely of male birds. It 

 is not, however, unusual to see parties of from thirty 

 to forty still flocking together up to the middle or 

 end of March, with the sexes mingled, though in full 

 breeding plumage. Pied varieties are occasionally, 

 though not often, met with, and specimens resembling 

 very light-coloured canaries have also occurred in 

 Norfolk. Of the latter, a very beautiful example (a 

 young male), killed at Brooke on the 30th of August, 

 1847, now in Mr. Gurney's collection, was thus described 

 at the time in the " Zoologist" : — ^'The ground colour 

 of its plumage is white, but pervaded throughout with 

 a delicate canary yellow colour. This tint is strongest 

 on the back and rump (especially the latter), on the 

 edges of the quill feathers of the wings, and of the tail 

 feathers. The eyes are of the natural colour." The speci- 

 men (No. lll.c) in the Norwich Museum, killed a few 

 years back at Cossey, so closely resembles the above that 

 any further description is unnecessary, and a somewhat 

 similar bird, killed on the 10th of January, 1861, had 

 the head and neck white, with a delicate yellow tinge on 

 the neck and back, a few brown feathers mixed with white 

 in the wings and tail, and the throat, breast, and under 

 parts generally, pervaded with a delicate rose colour. 

 2d 



