218 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



'^ They come with a very rapid flight, and pitch into the 

 yew-trees like sparrows into the ivy." Once there it was 

 almost impossible to catch sight of them, as they kept 

 amongst the thickest foliage, and it was only by con- 

 cealing himself that he obtained a chance shot, as they 

 rarely exposed themselves on an open branch, and on 

 leaving the trees they again flew with great swiftness. 

 Messrs. Gurney and Fisher refer to a specimen taken 

 some years back at Taverham, which, singularly enough 

 for so shy a bird, was captured alive in a pigeon-house. 

 The fact of the beak, in this species a most prominent 

 feature, having a seasonal change of colour, is thus 

 referred to by Mr. Doubleday* in the " Zoologist" 

 (p. 5098j : — " In the autumn and winter the bill, in both 

 sexes, is always flesh-coloured ; in March it begins to 

 change, and by the early part of April is of a deep 

 leaden blue colour, and continues so during the breeding 

 season." I have observed, however, in such birds as are 

 killed here, with the dark bill of the summer months, 

 the under surface of the lower mandible is not blue but 

 pink, becoming yellow in stuffed specimens. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES CHLORIS (Linnseus). 



GEEENFINCH. 



This well-known and handsome species is stiU, I am 

 happy to say, a common resident in Norfolk, although 

 in some districts its numbers have been sadly thinned, of 

 late years, through the agents of the great " Caterpillars* 



* I am sorry to say that Mr. Doubleday, wlio has for many 

 years studied the habits of these birds in Epping Forest, and 

 was the first to discover their nests in that locality, informs 

 me, in a recent letter, that they are now comparatively rare. " A 

 large portion of the forest (he writes), where this species used to 



