GOLDFINCH. 1 23 



In Russia on the contrary it has penetrated to Archangel, 

 though but rarely seen there ; it is however very common on 

 the southern steppes. It is not known from Siberia, but is 

 pretty common in Circassia. It reaches Turkestan and has 

 been obtained by several naturalists in Persia. In Asia 

 Minor, from Trebizond to Smyrna, it is common and resident, 

 and has been met with in Palestine. In Lower Egypt it is 

 rather abundant in winter, but does not ascend the Nile- 

 valley, it is said, above Cairo. It is plentiful in most parts 

 of Algeria and Eastern Morocco, and there are places in the 

 Tell, indeed, in which Mr. J. H. Gurney says it is the com- 

 monest bird, while it extends its range to the Canaries and 

 Madeira. Throughout the whole of Europe, it is more or 

 less universally distributed in suitable localities, and ac- 

 cording to Col. Irby is the most common bird in Southern 

 Spain. 



The bill is nearly white tinged with pink and tipped with 

 black : irides dusky brown : a thin line over the nostrils, and 

 the lores, black ; forehead bright, glossy crimson-red ex- 

 tending to behind the eyes ; crown and back of the head 

 black, whence a band of the same descends on each side of 

 the neck ; nape below this band huffy- white ; back, scapulars 

 and rump, wood-brown ; lesser wing-coverts black, but in 

 winter often broadly tipped with huffy- white ; greater wing- 

 coverts and the outer web of the basal half of each primary 

 after the second, brilliant gamboge-yellow ; the remaining por- 

 tion of the primaries, and all the other wing-quills black, 

 tipped with w^hite, which on the tertials becomes buff in winter; 

 upper tail-coverts greyish- white tipped with wood-brown ; tail- 

 quills black — the two outer feathers on each side with an irre- 

 gularly shaped spot of white on the inner web and the rest 

 tipped with buffy- white ; chin and fore part of the cheeks, 

 bright crimson-red ; the rest of the cheeks and ear-coverts 

 white, clouded on the latter with dull brown ; throat and lower 

 parts dull white, more or less deeply tinged on the sides of the 

 breast, body and flanks, with wood-brown ; lower under wing- 

 coverts white, except those of the carpus which are blackish : 

 legs and toes pale flesh-colour; claws brown. 



