100 BRITISH BIRDS. 
FRINGILLA CASLEBS. 
CHAFFINCH. 
(Piare 13.) 
Passer fringilla, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 148 (1760). 
Fringilla celebs, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 318 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Gmelin, Scopoli, Latham, Temminck, Degland § Gerbe, Dresser, Newton, &e. 
Fringilla nobilis, Schrank, Faun. Botea, p. 176 (1798). 
Passer spiza, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. it. p. 17 (1826). 
Struthus celebs (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 
The Chaffinch is one of the commonest of our native birds, and is 
found in all suitable localities throughout the British Islands. Its dis- 
tribution is somewhat affected by the physical aspects of the country, and 
bare and treeless districts are little frequented by this gay and lively bird. 
In Scotland, including several localities on the Outer Hebrides and all 
the sheltered and wooded portions of the mner islands, it is almost as 
generally distributed asin England. It occasionally visits barren districts, 
and is a common bird in winter in the Shetlands. In Ireland the Chat- 
finch is as common as in England and Scotland, and is found throughout 
all the cultivated and wooded districts. To the Faroes it is only known 
as an occasional straggler. 7 
The Chaffinch breeds throughout Europe, in Scandinavia as far north 
as the Arctic circle and occasionally beyond, but in the Ural Mountains 
only up to lat. 62°. In the northern portion of its breeding-range it is a 
migratory bird, and in South Europe it breeds on the mountains and 
winters in the plains. It is a somewhat rare and local resident in Algeria, 
and also winters in Egypt. Im Asia, Finsch found it east of the Ural 
Mountains, and received an example from Professor Slovzow from the 
neighbourhood of Omsk. Severtzow records it as wintering in North-west 
Turkestan. It breeds in the oak-forests of Western Persia and on the 
mountains of Asia Minor and Palestine. Its occurrence in Beluchistan, 
recorded by Sharpe and Dresser, and also by Professor Newton, is con- 
tradicted by Blanford in his ‘ Hastern Persia.’ 
The Chaffinch has several very near allies. Our Chaffinch is found as 
far south as the cork-woods on the coast of Algeria; but in the evergreen- 
oak forests of the uplands of that country it is replaced by a very nearly 
allied species, F'. spodiogena, in which the back is suffused with yellowish 
green instead of dull chestnut, and the underparts are pinkish buff instead 
of pale dull chestnut. On the island of Madeira the Chaffinch is some- 
what intermediate between these two species. It is nearest allied to the 
