CHAFFINCH. IN8ESSORES. FRINGILLA. S05 



outward appearance, always accordant with the particular 

 colour of its situation. The eggs are four or five in number, 

 of a bluish- white, tinged with pink, and marked with streaks 

 and spots of purplish-red. In summer the Chaffinch feeds Food, 

 much upon insects and their larvae, and I have witnessed its 

 assiduity, during the autumn, in devouring the females of a 

 large species of aphis, that infests the trunks and stronger 

 branches of the larch, and some other kinds of fir. In win- 

 ter, grain and other seeds constitute its food. 



It is a species widely disseminated, and found in almost 

 all parts of Europe, being sedentary in the warmer provinces, 

 but migratory in those situated to the northward. 



PLATE 54. Fig. 6. A male bird in the spring plumage, 



and of the natural size. 



Bill clear greyish-blue, with the tip black. Crown of the General 

 head and nape of the neck deep greyish-blue. Back j^ 1 * 1 *" 

 chestnut-brown ; the feathers being margined with yel- Male, 

 lowish-grey. Rump deep sulphur-yellow. Lesser wing- 

 coverts white; those of the primary quills and the bas- 

 tard wing entirely black ; secondary coverts black, tip- 

 ped with primrose-yellow. The three first quills black, 

 having the outer web margined with white ; the rest, 

 and the secondaries, with a white spot at the base, with 

 part of their inner webs white, and with the interior half 

 of the outer webs margined with pale sulphur-yellow. 

 Tail, with the two middle feathers, bluish-grey, mar- 

 gined with yellow ; the three next, on each side, en- 

 tirely black ; and the two outer ones with a large white 

 spot on the inner web, the exterior web being margined 

 with white. Cheeks, neck, and throat, pale reddish- 

 brown, passing upon the breast and flanks into pale 

 vinous-red. Middle of the belly and vent white Legs 

 and feet broccoli-brown. 

 VOL. T. u 



