198 Fringillidce. 



sides of the neck.* It is called ' Tree Sparrow' from its habit of 

 resorting for rest as well as for breeding purposes to trees apart 

 from the habitation of man, and montanus from its supposed 

 partiality for hilly districts. It does, however, on occasions 

 build in the thatch of a barn, in company with the House 

 Sparrow, but in such cases it has been observed, singularly 

 enough, to differ from its congener in its mode of entering the 

 nest, not from the inside of the building as does the species 

 with which we are most familiar, but by holes on the outside 

 of the thatch. In France it is distinguished as Le Friquet, 

 which I can only translate as ' the prig ;' in Germany, as Feld 

 Sperling; in Sweden, as Pit-Fink. 



82. GREENFINCH (Coccothraustes chloris}. 



Also extremely common throughout the county, and residing 

 with us the whole year, and easily distinguished from all others 

 by its olive-green dress tinged with yellow and gray. The 

 generic name Coccothraustes, from KOKKO^ + Qpavw, signifies 

 'berry-breaker,' which is no inappropriate designation of the 

 several species, armed as they all are with so powerful an 

 instrument for securing the kernels inclosed in hard envelopes. 

 Chloris aptly describes the yellowish-green, which is the pre- 

 vailing colour of the bird, from x\o>po9, ' green ;' and this has 

 been the origin of its name in all the Continental languages : in 

 France, Le Verdier; in Germany, Grunling; in Italy, Verdone; 

 in Sweden, Grdn-Flnk; in Spain, Verdon and Verderon ; in 

 Portugal, Verdilhdo. 



It is a very pretty bird, and is sometimes styled the ' Green 

 Grosbeak,' from the large thick form of its bill ; this gives it 

 rather a clumsy appearance, and indeed in shape it is somewhat 

 heavy and compact, and has none of the elegance which dis- 

 tinguishes other members of its family. It can boast of no song, 

 and associates in winter with chaffinches and yellow buntings, 

 which congregate at that season in the stubble-field and rickyard. 



* Harting's ' Birds of Middlesex,' p. 82. 



