92 THE BIEDS OF OXFOEDSHIEE. 



Cornbury Park, and the thicker portions of the Chiltern 

 woods, where the hornbeam (the seeds of which are a favoui'ite 

 food of this bird) is a native, neither of which localities have 

 been thoroughly investigated by the ornithologist, may be 

 indicated as likely to harbour the Hawfinch in some plenty. 



-1 K 



THE GREEnSTFINCH. i -^ 



Coccofhra xsfes chloris. 

 The Greenfinch is an abundant resident, breeding freely in 

 gardens and in the hedgerows, and is found in considerable 

 flocks in the fields, and round stackyards, during the autumn 

 and winter months. Greenfinches are remarkably fond of the 

 seeds of the sunflower, and will sit by the hour on a large 

 seed head qviietly extracting and shelling the seeds one by 

 one, and resorting daily to the same spot until the supply is 

 exhausted. 



THE GOLDFINCH. • ^ 



Carduelis elegans. 



The Goldfinch is resident as a species, but as to individuals 

 it is migratory to a considerable extent. Two races of Gold- 

 finches are well knowni to our bird-catchers, the large, hand- 

 some, light-coloured birds which appear in spring and leave us 

 again in autumn, wintering in the south, and a smaller and 

 more dusky resident race which remains here during the 

 winter. 



A few years ago the Goldfinch had become exceedingly 

 scarce in North Oxon in summer, and several years passed 

 in which I did not see a single bird in the breeding season, 

 hwi during the last three or four years it has been steadily 

 increasing and is now almost common again. Last summer 

 (1887), I noticed as many as four pairs in the course of a 

 short walk in this parish. ^Ir. Fowler has also noticed an 

 increase in the breeding birds at Kingham, where they were 

 scarce. In some of the more secluded parts of the county 



