GREENFINCH. 109 



The male has the bill of a dull flesh-colour, darkest at the 

 tip : the irides hazel : the lores dusky-black ; the forehead 

 golden-green ; the crown of the head, neck, mantle, scapulars 

 and back, olive-green clouded with hair-brown ; the upper 

 and least wing- coverts bright golden-green, the outer edge of 

 the wings gamboge-yellow ; the wing-quills blackish-brown, 

 tipped with brownish-grey, — the tertials bordered broadly 

 with hair-brown, the secondaries narrowly with olive-green, 

 and the primaries with brilliant gamboge-yellow, for the 

 basal two-thirds of their length ; the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts bright golden-green ; the two middle tail-quills 

 blackish-brown bordered with brownish-grey ; the rest have 

 the basal half gamboge-yellow, the terminal part blackish- 

 brown edged with brownish-grey : the sides of the head 

 and ear-coverts ashy-grey mixed with green ; the chin, 

 throat and breast, bright golden-green, clouded with ashy- 

 grey and passing into gamboge-yellow on the belly ; the vent 

 white tinged with yellow ; the lower tail-coverts straw- 

 coloured, mixed with white; the sides of the body and 

 the thighs light brownish-ochreous ; the lower wing-coverts 

 and the lower surface of the basal half of the tail-quills pale 

 yellow : legs, toes and claws, pale wood-brown. 



The whole length of an adult male is six inches or a little 

 more ; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three 

 inches and a half: the second, third and fourth primaries 

 very nearly equal ; the fifth an eighth of an inch shorter 

 than the fourth, and the sixth a quarter of an inch shorter 

 than the fifth : the tail very decidedly forked. 



In the female, which is a rather smaller bird, the bill is 

 pale brown ; the upper plumage generally hair-brown, tinged 

 only with golden-green on the upper and least wing-coverts 

 and on the rump ; the yellow edging of the primaries and 

 base of the tail-quills remains, though it is less bright; 

 the throat, breast and belly, pale brown, the last tinged with 

 greenish-yellow ; lower tail-coverts dull white. 



Young birds in their first plumage are generally of a 

 light ochraceous-brown with clouded spots of darker-brown 

 above, and beneath especially, on the throat, breast and belly 



