GREENFINCH. 75 



but on the shores of the Pacific two species belonging to the same sub- 

 genus occur, both of which are smaller, and may at once be distinguished 

 by the rich brown colour of the back. The larger of these species, F. 

 kawarahiba, ranges from Kamtschatka to Japan; the smaller, F. sinica, 

 is found in the valley of the Lower Amoor, the island of Askold^ the main 

 and south islands of Japan, and throughout China. 



The Greenfinch, of all the British Finches (excepting the Sparrow), is a 

 bird which is perhaps the best known. This is because its favourite haunts 

 are in our gardens, shrubberies, and pleasure-grounds. It is not a bird of 

 the wilds, and away from the localities just mentioned is local and even 

 scarce. It is, however, very common in fields which are bounded by thick 

 hedges or adjoin plantations of spruce-firs. "When found in large woods, 

 it is rarely seen far from the borders. It is a resident bird in this country, 

 and in winter its haunts are perhaps a little less confined to the districts 

 above mentioned ; it may then be sometimes seen on the stubbles, near 

 the moorland, in company with Linnets and Twites. 



The Greenfinch in summer is to a great extent shy and retiring in its 

 habits, and, like the Bullfinch, it is far more often heard than seen at 

 that season. Its song commences in April, at which time the birds also 

 pair. There is nothing very striking in its music it is a song which bears 

 some resemblance to that of an inferior Canary; and it is only when 

 several birds are singing in chorus that their notes are at all attractive. 

 In spring half a dozen cock-birds will sometimes be seen in a single tree ; 

 and when they are all warbling together, one against the other, the effect 

 is very harmonious and pleasing. It will warble incessantly through the 

 spring, not so frequently in the nesting-season ; but in autumn its tremulous 

 and chirping song is heard repeatedly from amongst the richly tinted 

 foliage. Its call-note to its mate is a harsh and long-drawn zh ; but the 

 common note of a flock as they fly together is a yik, yik, yik, rapidly 

 repeated. 



Although the Greenfinch cannot be called a gregarious bird in summer, 

 it is a sociable one ; and we often find numbers of nests within a small 

 area, sometimes two in the branches of the same tree. I once found two 

 Greenfinches' nests, which were placed side by side on the branch of a 

 tree in my brother's garden at Hitchin. Both nests contained eggs. A 

 similar instance is recorded by Mr. Gurney (Zool. 1852, p. 3577). This 

 bird is a rather late breeder, and eggs are seldom laid before the latter end 

 of April. The great breeding-grounds of the Greenfinch are in shrub- 

 beries ; by far the greatest number of its nests are built in evergreen trees 

 and shrubs. It also breeds in whitethorn hedges, in gardens, and more 

 rarely in gorse-thickcts. Sometimes it will select a nesting-site fifty feet 

 or more from the ground, in a fork of an elm, or even in a cavity in the 

 trunk. It also builds amongst ivy, both growing on^ trees and on walls, 



