110 



FRINGILLID.E. 



with elongated brown patches a few clouded spots are also 

 to be seen on the back. 



Young males after their first moult are intermediate in 

 the general tone of colour between that of the adult male 

 and the female, but the yellow colour on the primaries does 

 not extend so far along each feather.* 



The vignette represents the nest of the Hawfinch. 



* It is not intended here to disturb the generic divisions of the FrinyiUidtu 

 adopted in former Editions of this work. To do so satisfactorily would require a 

 closer study of the family as a whole than is now in the power of the Editor to pro- 

 secute. He however thinks it right to say that he believes the inclusion of the 

 Greenfinch in the genus Coccothraustes, of which the Hawfinch is the typical if 

 not the only species, to rest upon superficial grounds, and would decidedly prefer 

 the separation of the Greenfinch therefrom. In this case the generic term 

 Ligurinus, bestowed by Koch in 1816 (Saugth. u. Yog. Baierns, p. 229), takes 

 precedence of Chlorospiza given by Bonaparte. That of Chloris, applied by 

 Cuvier in 1800 (Lecons d'Anat. Comp. tab. ii.), has been objected to from its 

 similarity to the Chlora of botanists, but if it be used another specific term 

 needs to be found, and accordingly that conferred by Swain son in 1837 (Hist, and 

 Classif. of Birds, ii. p. 281) should be added, and the species will then stand as 

 Chloris flavigaster — for the various epithets by which the eldest Brehm had pre- 

 viously tried to distinguish the indistinguishable " subs})ecies" of this bird should 

 lie disregarded by every one who has at heart the simplification of nomenclatural 

 puzzles. 



