CHAFFINCH. 73 



Jura at the height of 2500 feet, while it occurs plentifully 

 every winter in Shetland. As a straggler it has been ob- 

 served by Herr H. C. Miiller in the Faeroes. In Norway 

 and Sweden it extends in summer far beyond the Arctic 

 Circle, and, though becoming somewhat rare in those high 

 latitudes, Herr Collett, in June 1872, met with a pair on the 

 rocky island of Gjaasvser, near the North Cape, which is 

 almost destitute of any arboreal vegetation. In the interior 

 of Finland it is far from uncommon, and it seems to be met 

 with throughout the forests of Russia so far northward as 

 Archangel. Pallas vouches for its appearance in Siberia, 

 but how far to the eastward it ranges is unknown, since his 

 successors in the ornithological exploration of that country 

 do not mention it. Mr. Blanford has obtained it in Belooch- 

 istan. It is a very common winter- visitant to Palestine, and 

 breeds abundantly in the highest parts of the Lebanon. Mr. 

 Wyatt obtained a specimen in the Sinaitic peninsula, and it 

 occurs in winter in Egypt, but is rarely seen further south 

 than Cairo, and, according to Capt. Shelley, probably does 

 not go beyond the First Cataract of the Nile. It is a common 

 winter-bird in the Levant generally, and Col. Drummond- 

 Hay believes that it breeds in Crete. In North-west Africa 

 it is very rare, and only a few examples have been observed 

 in Algeria, where the closely- allied but quite distinct Fringilla 

 spodioy cnia takes its place, while in Madeira, the Azores and 

 Canaries it is represented by two other species, F. tintillon 

 and F. teydea. Almost everywhere throughout Europe it is 

 as common a bird as it is with us, and is generally more or 

 less migratory in its habits, but in a locality so far south as 

 the Balearic Islands it is said to be resident. 



The adult male in summer has the bill of a deep bluish 

 lead-colour, inclining to pink at the base of the lower man- 

 dible : the irides hazel : the feathers of the forehead black ; 

 top of the head and nape dark bluish-grey, the latter bounded 

 by a narrow half-collar of dark oil-green ; upper part of the 

 back dull chestnut, changing just above the rump to oil-green, 

 which continues over the upper tail-coverts ; scapulars and 

 least wing-coverts dark bluish-grey, the next tier of wing- 



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