GREENFINCH. 219 



Friends Society." The male Greenfinch, with the rich 

 olive green and yellow of its nuptial plumage, and the 

 flesh-coloured tints of its beak and legs has a very 

 striking appearance, and his varied notes, though some- 

 what harsh, are far from unpleasing, when heard amidst 

 the dense foliage of the trees in summer. It is a hardy 

 bird, as its stout thick-set figure would seem to indicate, 

 and frequenting the vicinity of stacks and farm-pre- 

 mises, remains with us, in flocks, throughout the winter, 

 while migratory individuals also occur in autumn on our 

 coast, passing southward with other allied and equally 

 familiar species.* A singular double nest of this bird 

 is thus described by Mr. Grurney, in the " Zoologist" 

 for 1852 (p. 3577) : " During the spring of this year, 

 in a thick bushy plant of an ornamental heath, growing 

 in a garden a few miles distant from Norwich, were 

 found two nests of the common greenfinch, which not 

 only were completely interwoven at the adjoining sides, 

 but were built on one common platform, a foundation of 

 fibrous roots and moss. Both nests were complete, 



breed in considerable numbers, has been cut down, and I am afraid 

 what is left will soon be enclosed. The London bird-catchers have 

 also, for the last few years, hunted the forest over in May for the 

 nests of the hawfinch, finding a ready sale for the eggs, and have 

 caught the old birds with bird-lime when the nests contained 

 young ones." 



* Mr. H. L. Saxby, in his " Ornithological notes from Shet- 

 land (Zoologist for 1865, p. 9488), thus alludes to the migratory habits 

 of this species, as observed, though apparently as an unusual circum- 

 stance, in that island : " During the early part of November, green- 

 finches arrived in immense flocks, which were chiefly composed 

 of females and young birds, although there were many fine old 

 males among them. Up to the 28th of last October, only one 

 individual of this species had been known to occur in Unst. Very 

 large numbers roosted in the garden even a few nights ago, and 

 many were captured as they flew against the windows after dark. 

 None of the inhabitants to whom I have spoken upon the subject 

 have seen this bird before." 

 2F2 



