BULLFINCH. 579 
also frequent in the southern parts of Scotland: but it is 
not found in the northern Scottish islands of Orkney or 
Shetland. It mhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and 
Russia; is particularly common in the forests of Germany, 
and from thence to the shores of the Mediterranean, and 
is seen at Corfu, in Sicily, and in Malta. To the east- 
ward in this parallel it is found as far as the countries 
spread between the Black and the Caspian Seas. M. 
Thunberg long ago said that the European Bullfinch was 
an inhabitant of Japan; and M. Temminck includes it in 
his recent Catalogue of the Birds of Europe found in that 
country. 
In the adult male the beak is of a shining black; the 
irides dark brown; the whole of the top of the head Jet 
black; nape of the neck, back, and lesser wing-coverts, deli- 
cate bluish grey ; the greater wing-coverts black, the ends 
white, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing; the 
rump above white ; upper tail-coverts black; all the quill 
and tail-feathers also black, tinged with blue, but the pri- 
mary wing-feathers not so dark as the tertials. The chin 
black ; ear-coverts, sides of the neck, throat, breast, and 
belly, tile-red ; vent and under tail-coverts white; under 
surface of the wings slate grey; under surface of the tail- 
feathers greyish black ; legs, toes, and claws, purple brown. 
The whole length of the bird rather more than six 
inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing 
three inches and one-eighth: the second, third, and fourth 
primaries, nearly equal in length, and the longest in the 
wing; the first and fifth feathers are also equal in length, 
but each about one-eighth shorter than the second, third, 
or fourth. 
The female has the grey colour of the back more mixed 
with brown; the under surface of the body, where the 
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