THE GOLDFINCH. 6 s 



Family FRINGILLIDsE. Subfamily FRINGILLIN&. 



THE GOLDFINCH. 



Carduelis clegans, STEPH. 



DR. SHARPE states that this bird inhabits Europe generally, except the 

 extreme north ; the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the countries bordering 

 the Mediterranean : it is a winter visitant to Egypt and Palestine. In Siberia it 

 extends to Omsk and Krasnoyarsk, and winters in Turkestan. 



In Great .Britain the Goldfinch is pretty generally distributed throughout 

 England, and in suitable localities in Scotland and Ireland, though the wholesale 

 destruction of woods, plantations and so-called waste land has rendered the species 

 comparatively rare and local in many parts of Great Britain. In the north of 

 Kent, where the nest might be obtained fairly commonly, year after year, about a 

 quarter of a century ago, it is now hardly ever met with, excepting perhaps in 

 strictly private gardens, pleasure-grounds, and orchards : indeed, I believe it is 

 fully fifteen years since I last saw a wild Kentish Goldfinch in the summer-time. 



This is the most beautiful of our British Finches : the adult male has the 

 forehead broadly satiny crimson, extending at the sides as a superciliary streak 

 which sometimes passes behind the eye and unites with a broad patch of the same 

 colour on the front of the face below the lores, and on the throat ; the lores, feathers 

 at base of beak and chin black ; crown and feathers behind the cheeks black ; 

 cheeks snow white (slightly stained in the centre with buffish brown, especially in 

 young birds) continuous with a white belt encircling the back of the throat : back 

 greyish copper-brown, with a transverse white spot on the nape ; wings blue-black, 

 occasionally slightly glossed with Prussian-green on the lesser coverts; greater 

 coverts golden-yellow ; the basal two-thirds of the primaries, excepting the first, 

 with the outer webs bright golden-yellow, the . secondaries also with broad yellow 

 bases, so that the wing appears to be broadly belted with yellow ; inner primaries 

 and outer secondaries tipped with white, inner secondaries with huffish-brown ; 

 upper tail coverts whitish, washed with buffish-brown ; tail feathers blue-black, the 

 central ones tipped with white, the two outer ones with a large oval white patch 

 on the inner web ; under parts mostly white ; a band across the fore-chest, the 

 sides of breast, and the flanks bright fawn-coloured ; under tail-coverts washed 



Voi. ii. M 



