LIGURINTJS CHLORIS 197 



placed in a fork of a tree or plant, is small and compactly built, but 

 the materials of which it is composed are often rather coarse for so 

 small a structure. They consist chiefly of rootlets and grass-bents, 

 plentifully lined with feathers and other soft materials. The eggs, 

 three or four in number, are of a delicate greenish-white, lightly 

 speckled with reddish-brown. Average measurements 15 X 12 mm. 



LIGURINUS CHLORIS (Linnaeus). 

 GEEENFINCH. 



Loxia chloris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 304 (1766). 



Ligurinus chloris, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 230 (1816) ; Koenuj, J. f. 0. 



1888, p. 244 ; id. J.f. 0. 1893, p. 63. 

 Chloris chloris, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xii, p. 21. 

 FringlUa (Ligurinus) chloris, Malherbe, Cat. Bais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 14 



(1846). 

 Chlorospiza chloris, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 149 (1867). 



Description. — Adult male, winter, from Tunis, North Tunisia. 



Upper parts greeu-washed with brown, brighter and purer on the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts ; lores grey-brown ; primaries blackish, tipped with 

 light grey, and margined on the basal three-fourths of the outer web with 

 bright yellow; secondaries and wing-coverts broadly margined with light 

 grey ; edge of wing yellow ; central rectrices blackish, margined with pale 

 grey ; the other tail-feathers yellow on the basal half and black on the 

 terminal half ; underparts green, tinged with brown on the flanks, and 

 becoming yellow on the middle of the abdomen and on the crissum. 



Iris hazel ; bill purplish-brown ; feet flesh-colour. 



Total length 5-75 inches, wing 3-40, culmen -50, tarsus -70. 



Adult female much more soberly coloured, and with but little yellow 

 in its plumage, the upper parts being greyish-brown with darker striations, 

 the lower parts paler and tinged with greenish-yellow. 



The common European Greenfinch I believe occurs in Tunisia 

 merely as a migrant in winter, and does not remain to breed in the 

 Regency, the resident Greenfinch of the country, as well as of the 

 whole of North-west Africa being the following subspecies. 



In the town of Tunis I have occasionally seen examples of 

 L. chloris (L.) in cages, but I have never myself met with the species 

 in the Eegency in a wild state. From both Algeria and Marocco I 

 have specimens of it obtained in winter. 



