214 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



The Chaffinch is of bright, sociable habits, and by no means shy. 

 During the winter months it is gregarious and usually to be found 

 in small flocks, which in Tunisia frequent the olive-groves and similar 

 plantations, feeding on the seeds of various wild plants as well as on 

 insects. The Chaffinch has a particularly bright and cheerful song, 

 and for this reason is often kept in captivity. Its sharp "pink-pink" 

 also rings pleasantly on the ear and is considered by some ornitho- 

 logists to be clearer in tone than that of F. spocliogenys, the resident 

 Chaffinch of North-west Africa. 



A curious instance of a hermaphrodite Chaffinch was recorded by 

 Herr F. E. Blaauw (Ibis, 1890, p. 464). The specimen in question, 

 besides having the genital organs of both sexes well developed, had 

 the plumage on the right half of its body coloured like that of a male, 

 and on the left like that of a female, the two different plumages being 

 sharply defined. The specimen was mounted and is preserved in the 

 Eoyal Zoological Museum at Amsterdam. 



FRINGILLA SPODIOGENYS, Bonaparte. 

 ALGERIAN CHAFFINCH. 



Fringilla spodiogenys, Bp. licv. Zool. 1841, p. 146; Sliarpc, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus. xii, p. 177 ; Malherbe, Faune Orn. de I'Alg. p. 20 (1855) ; 

 Kocnig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 235 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, p. 57 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 

 1894, p. 91 ; Erla7iger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 470. 



Fringilla spodiogena, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 146 (1867). 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Gafsa, South Tunisia. 



Forehead and lores black ; remainder of head, nape, scapulars and upper 

 tail-coverts slate-blue ; back and rump green ; middle pair of rectrices dark 

 grey, fringed with whitish ; three outer pairs white, black on the terminal 

 portion of the outer web and on the basal portion of the inner web ; next 

 adjoining pair black, with a white patch on the inner web ; primary quills 

 black, fringed externally with greenish-white; secondaries similar, but more 

 broadly fringed ; wing-coverts as in F. Calebs ; throat and rest of underparts 

 a pale roseate-vinous, becoming whitish on the abdomen, crissum and under 

 tail-coverts. 



Iris hazel ; bill lead-colour ; feet brown. 



Total length 6*50 inches, wing 3-65, culmen -50, tarsus ■75. 



Adult female, spring, from Gafsa, South Tunisia. 



