100 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FRINGILLA CALEBS. 



CHAFFINCH. 



(PLATE 13.) 



Passer fringilla, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 148 (1760). 



Fringilla coelebs, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 318 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum 



Gmelin, Scopoli, Latham, Temminck, Degland fy Gerbe, Dresser, Newton, &c. 

 Fringilla nobilis, Schrarik, Faun. Boica, p. 176 (1798). 

 Passer spiza, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. ii. p. 17 (1826). 

 Struthus ccelebs (Linn.}, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 



The Chaffinch is one of the commonest of our native birds, and is 

 found in all suitable localities throughout the British Islands. Its dis- 

 tribution is somewhat affected by the physical aspects of the country, and 

 bare and treeless districts are little frequented by this gay and lively bird. 

 In Scotland, including several localities on the Outer Hebrides and all 

 the sheltered and wooded portions of the inner islands, it is almost as 

 generally distributed as in England. It occasionally visits barren districts, 

 and is a common bird in winter in the Shetlands. In Ireland the Chaf- 

 finch is as common as in England and Scotland, and is found throughout 

 all the cultivated and wooded districts. To the Faroes it is only known 

 as aja. occasional straggler. 



The Chaffinch breeds throughout Europe, in Scandinavia as far north 

 as the Arctic circle and occasionally beyond, but in the Ural Mountains 

 only up to lat. 62. In the northern portion of its breeding-range it is a 

 migratory bird, and in South Europe it breeds on the mountains and 

 winters in the plains. It is a somewhat rare and local resident in Algeria, 

 and also winters in Egypt. In Asia, Finsch found it east of the Ural 

 Mountains, and received an example from Professor Slovzow from the 

 neighbourhood of Omsk. Severtzow records it as wintering in North-west 

 Turkestan. It breeds in the oak-forests of Western Persia and on the 

 mountains of Asia Minor and Palestine. Its occurrence in Beluchistan, 

 recorded by Sharpe and Dresser, and also by Professor Newton, is con- 

 tradicted by Blanford in his ' Eastern Persia/ 



The Chaffinch has several very near allies. Our Chaffinch is found as 

 far south as the cork -woods on the coast of Algeria ; but in the evergreen- 

 oak forests of the uplands of that country it is replaced by a very nearly 

 allied species, F. spodiogena, in which the back is suffused with yellowish 

 green instead of dull chestnut, and the underparts are pinkish buff instead 

 of pale dull chestnut. On the island of Madeira the Chaffinch is some- 

 what intermediate between these two species. It is nearest allied to the 



