FRINGILLIN.^^. 



175 



THE CHAFFINCH. 



Fringilla C(i:LEBs, Linnaeus. 



The Chaffinch is a common and generally distributed species 

 throughout the cultivated or wooded portions of the British Islands : 

 it may even be found nesting in low bushes in some of the treeless 

 Outer Hebrides, and also at a considerable elevation in the mountains 

 of Scotland, where it is undoubtedly increasing. As yet it has not 

 been recorded as breeding in the Shetlands, although it visits them 

 in winter ; at that season large flocks arrive from the Continent on 

 our east coast, while other bands, from the north of our island, s[)iead 

 themselves over the inland provinces. Owing to a partial and 

 temporary separation of the sexes at this time, the name cxlebs, or 

 bachelor, was used by Linnaeus in reference to the deserted males. 



As a straggler, the Chaffinch has been obtained in the Fteroes, 

 and in summer it occurs, in comparatively small numbers, nearly up 

 to the North C'ape ; while south of the Arctic circle it is generally 

 distributed during the breeding-season throughout the temperate 

 regions of Europe down to the Mediterranean. Colonel Irby found 

 it breeding near Gibraltar, but in the south of Spain it must be very 



