Birds of the Canary Islands. 3 



Fkingilla teydba. 



I saw a great deal of the Teydeau Chaffinch, which goes 

 about during the winter in small, rather scattered flocks, 

 sometimes associating with the Azorean Chaffinch, F. thi- 

 tillon ; in fact, I generally found them near other birds. Its 

 call-note is a loud double chirp, sometimes like that of the 

 Azorean Chaffinch, but very easily distinguished by its plain- 

 tive ring. It is a very late breeder, only commencing to 

 build at the end of May. I found several pairs breeding in 

 a stretch of pine-forest at an elevation of nearly 6000 feet, 

 where there were many very large lichen- covered trees, and 

 where the forest had been less hacked about than is usually 

 the case in the Canaries. With the exception of a few Tits 

 and Goldcrests, a pair of young Kites just on the wing, some 

 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and a pair of Sparrow-Hawks, 

 whose nest I found, they were the only birds there. I heard 

 many cocks singing a regular Chaffinch's song — several low 

 notes, gradually rising and ending in three or four harsh ones. 

 I found a nest in course of construction by watching the birds 

 carry materials ; they were perfectly fearless, collecting 

 lichen &c. within a few feet of where we stood, and working 

 away while we were under their tree. I went up to this 

 forest again on the 4th of June, hoping to get eggs, but found 

 it impossible to reach the nest, though I got on to the branch 

 on which it was placed ; it was completed, and from the 

 behaviour of the birds I think they had laid. Three out of 

 four other nests found this day were at the end of thin and 

 decaying branches and inaccessible ; they were probably 

 empty, as in each case the parent birds were carrying mate- 

 rials. I got up to one nest, which was half built, very neat and 

 round, like a Chaffinch's, but with a few pine-needles worked 

 in ; the hen came and added materials while I was sitting in 

 the tree. I did not find these birds in the Retama, where 

 Webb and Berthelot mention having found them, but in all 

 cases they were in the pines or in the tree-heath and laurel 

 among the pines ; they were always very fearless. The plu- 

 mage of the female is much bluer in summer than in winter. 

 I am afraid the days of this species are numbered, as the 



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