20 Canon H. B. Tristram — Ornithological 



of the back, I obtained in the same district and in tlie same 

 week specimens with the back olive-yellow to the neck, with 

 the back slaty blue to the upper tail-coverts, and with the 

 back half slaty blue and the lower half olive-yellow. Besides 

 these I shot a specimen in Gomera on the 9th of May which 

 has the centre of the back, between the slaty blue and the 

 olive-yellow, reddish brown, the exact hue of the back of 

 our Chaffinch. Yet in the same forest I shot others without 

 a trace of this hue, but olive-yellow nearly to the neck. 

 It is impossible to attribute this variation to seasonal change, 

 as all my specimens are breeding birds, and all were obtained 

 between the middle of March and the 12th of May. Nor 

 can we suppose that age has much to do with the matter, 

 when out of fourteen Canarian male specimens I have ex- 

 amples of seven different proportions in the distribution of 

 the colours of the back. Again the under surface varies 

 in like fashion from the palest salmon-colour to a dark 

 brownish pink. The specimens (three) from Gomera are 

 the darkest on the under surface, darker even than Madei- 

 ran birds. But in Gran Canaria itself I obtained dark- as 

 well as light-breasted examples. The only conclusion at 

 which I can arrive is that Fringilla tintillon has by no means 

 made up its mind as to what-coloured livery it shall wear, 

 but is resolved to assert the rights of the individual, and to 

 exercise freedom of choice, though very possibly in lapse of 

 time and by isolation the fashions may become stereotyped 

 differently in different islands, and that Gomera will adopt 

 a deeper-dyed cloak than even moist Madeira. 



In the hedgerow timber of Doramas I obtained a pair of 

 Chiffchafis. This is one of the most abundant species in all 

 the three islands I visited, and, like the Pipit, is found in 

 highlands and lowlands alike, equally common in the sugar- 

 cane plots, the hedgesides, the gardens, and the dense forest 

 glades. It is, moreover, a constant resident, not even mi- 

 grating up and down the hills ; for its food in the evergreen 

 verdure of the Canaries is equally abundant everywhere at 

 all times of the year. I was surprised to hear a note quite 

 dififerent from that of our Chiifchaff, and had no idea, until 

 I picked it up, that the first specimen I shot, and to which 



