SERINVSLIGURINUS 283 



Culmen 0'32, wing 2'82, tail 2*1, tarsus 0'85 inch. The female resembles 

 the male but is duller and the red frontal patch is smaller. The young 

 bird has the head brown streaked with blackish, the forehead tinged with 

 dull orange and the throat and breast-feathers broadly margined with 

 yellowish white. 



Hal}. Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Transcaspia, northern Persia, 

 Afghanistan, and Turkestan ; wintering in southern Asia Minor, 

 Palestine, and the lower slopes of the Himalayas. 



In habits and song it resembles the Serin but its note is 

 rather weaker and like that species it feeds principally on 

 seeds. As a rule it is rather shy. It breeds usually at an 

 elevation of from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, the nest being usually 

 placed in a juniper tree. It is a rather larger structure than 

 that of the Serin from which it differs, being built of fine 

 bents intermixed with grey lichens, and warmly lined with 

 soft feathers. The eggs, from 4 to 5 in number, closely re- 

 semble those of the blue variety of S. canarius being pale 

 bluish minutely and somewhat sparingly dotted with pale red, 

 and measure about 0'65 by 0'51. 



LIGURINUS, Koch, 1816. 



416. GREENFINCH. 

 LIGURINUS CHLCRIS. 



Ligurinus cldoris (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 304 (1766) ; (Naum.) v. 

 p. 62, Taf. 120, figs. 1, 3 ; (Hewitson) i. p. 204, pi. Hi. fig. 1 ; 

 (Gould) B. of E. iii. pi. 200 ; id. B. of ~Gt. Brit. iii. pi. 39 ; 

 Newton, ii. p. 105 ; Dresser, iii. p. 567, pi. 174 ; (Sharpe) Cat. 

 B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 21 ; Saunders, p. 169 ; Lilford, iv. p. 50. 

 pi. 24 ; C/doris chlorotica, (Cab.) Mus. Hein. i. p. 158 (1850) ; 

 Sharpe, torn. cit. p. 26. 



Verdier ordinaire, French ; Verdilhao, Portug. ; Vcrdon, Span. ; 

 Verdone, Ital. ; Griinling, German ; Grocnling, Dutch; GronirisJe, 

 Dan. ; Svenske, Norweg. ; Groufink, Swed. ; Vihertavci-varpunen, 

 Finn. ; Zelenouschka, Russ. 



< ad. (England). Crown, nape, and upper parts ashy grey marked 

 with apple-green ; forehead, space above the eye and rump greenish 

 golden yellow ; wings and tail blackish the basal outer web of primaries 

 broadly margined with bright yellow, and edge of wing bright yellow ; 

 secondaries and wing-coverts margined and tipped with slate-grey ; basal 



