GREENFINCH. 107 



reddish-brown and purplish-grey ; the markings being often 

 disposed in a zone : they vary much in shape, being often 

 greatly elongated, and measure from '97 to '68 by from 

 57 to -53 in. 



The young are fed from the first entirely upon soft seeds, 

 and by thus destroying countless weeds this species does 

 good service to the gardener and farmer. As the season ad- 

 vances the broods support themselves in company with their 

 parents on vegetable diet not always of a harmless kind. 

 Later still they unite in flocks, and consorting with Bunt- 

 ings and other Finches, feed in corn-fields and stubble, till 

 the privations of winter drive them to the barn-door and 

 stack-yard. They generally roost in evergreen trees or 

 shrubs, constantly returning to the same spot, and, as Selby 

 has remarked, before retiring for the night, they quit the 

 company of their associates and make many ringing flights 

 round their resting station a habit however which is com- 

 mon to several other kinds of birds. A partial separation 

 of the sexes is observable in winter though not to the same 

 extent as in the Chaffinch.* A considerable immigration 

 to the Eastern Counties takes place every autumn, but 

 whether the strangers are of foreign extraction, or bred in 

 the northern parts of this island is unknown. 



The Greenfinch is plentiful in all such cultivated parts of 

 Great Britain and Ireland as are adjacent to gardens and 

 small woods. Of late years it has been found in several of 

 the Hebrides, where it was said not formerly to exist, and it 

 may possibly occur in most of them. It is a winter-visitant 

 to Orkney, and though until recently exceedingly scarce in 

 Shetland has now earned the same character in that group 

 of islands. It has likewise appeared several times in winter 

 in the Faeroes, but only since the year 1865. In Norway it 

 breeds so far as Nordland ; and, though in most districts a 

 summer- visitant, large flocks are said to winter in the 



* Neville Wood (Brit. Song Birds, p. 387) states that each nest usually, 

 though he cannot say always, contains birds of the same sex, and that the same 

 is the case with a few other species of the family. This assertion however re- 

 quires corroboration before it can be accepted. 



