GREENFINCH. 555 



and dividing a Heliotrophe or geranium stem in an instant. 

 I had it about five months, and took no pains to tame it. 

 I am not fond of birds compassion was the origin of our 

 acquaintance, and attachment and confidence on the part 

 of the bird won my favour." 



It is said to be rather a late breeder ; but its nest may 

 frequently be found towards the end of April in low bushes 

 or hedges, and sometimes in trees. The nest is composed 

 on the outside, of coarse fibrous roots, with bits of wood 

 and green moss interwoven, lined with finer roots, horse- 

 hair, and feathers. The eggs are from four to six in 

 number, white, tinged with blue, the larger end spotted 

 and speckled with purplish grey and dark brown; the 

 length nine lines and a half, by six lines and a half in 

 breadth. 



The young birds are fed for a time with insects and soft 

 vegetable substances, and as the season advances these little 

 families unite, and flocking with Buntings and Finches, feed 

 in corn fields and stubble lands till winter and its privations 

 oblige them to resort to the farmer's barn-doors and stack- 

 yard. 



The Greenfinch is found generally in all the cultivated 

 parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, except, as stated 

 by Mr. Macgillivray, the western and northern islands of 

 Scotland. It is included by authors among the birds of 

 Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; but according to M. 

 Nilsson, it is more common in Sweden in winter than in 

 summer. It is common in all the countries of southern 

 Europe, on many of the islands of the Mediterranean, and 

 is found even as far as Madeira. In a south-eastern di- 

 rection it was observed by Mr. Strickland to be common 

 at Smyrna. 



M. F. H. Kittlitz, a distinguished naturalist, who went 

 with a Russian Expedition, in 1827, to the South Seas, 



