On 
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brighter-coloured and perhaps a trifle smaller than the average of the North-European 
examples. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., also takes this view, and writes (Ibis, 1871, p. 293) as 
follows: —“I think that, though the extremes of C. chloris and C. aurantiiventris may be 
widely different, they run into each other so much, that it is impossible to draw the line, 
and that the latter name will have to sink into a synonym. At Miliana, where they were 
plentiful and quite tame (often entering within the walls of the town), there were always some 
dull-coloured individuals in a flock, far duller than many British ones which I have seen.” 
Colonel Irby, who says that, according to Favier, it is a common resident near Tangier, but 
many migrate in immense flocks which pass north in February and March, returning in October 
and November, adds that he never could see sufficient reason for a separation of the North- 
African from the European bird. 
To the eastward the Greenfinch is found as far as the Taélish Mountains, where Ménétries 
met with it; but Mr. Blanford informs me that he does not believe that it occurs in Persia. 
The present species is not a frequenter of the dense forest, but is usually met with in 
cultivated places, gardens, groves, and the outskirts of the larger forests, and more especially 
places where water is in the vicinity. It is a tolerably shy bird, and knows quite well how to 
keep out of the way of danger, although when unmolested it becomes tame and fearless. Like 
most of its allies it feeds chiefly, if not entirely, on seeds of various kinds, and is not unfrequently 
very destructive to gardens, especially where hemp and spinach have been sown; but most kinds 
of seeds, both wild and cultivated, are devoured by this. Mr. R. Collett informs me that in 
Norway he has frequently seen Greenfinches eating the seeds of Ulmus montana, and that they 
are caught in snares baited with the berries of the mountain-ash. It either picks the seeds up 
from the ground or else from the plants as they are still hanging; but on the ground it is 
rather a clumsy bird than otherwise, but hops with tolerable ease. ‘Though a heavy bird, it flies 
swiftly, its flight reminding one of that of the Sparrow. So soon as the summer is over the 
Greenfinches collect in flocks, and remain thus until the following spring, wandering about in 
search of food. The song of the male is neither pleasing nor rich; and I should never select the 
present species as a cage-bird, at least not on account of its song. Its call-note is a loud, 
extremely harsh, and prolonged note, which somewhat resembles the syllable schdédr, but is 
difficult to reproduce; and this is often uttered as the male sits on the top of a tree, and is used 
as a prelude to its rather simple song. When singing it spreads and closes its tail and jerks the 
hinder part of its body; sometimes it soars or flies from the summit of one tree to another 
singing the whole time. 
It commences nidification in April, the eggs being deposited in May; and not unfrequently 
a second brood is raised in the same season. ‘The nest is constructed of grass-bents, roots, &c. 
intermixed with moss and wool, the internal portion being composed of rather finer materials ; 
and the inside lining is usually composed of hair: as a rule it is a neat and well-finished 
structure, though some nests are much less artistically formed and finished than others. 
Usually the nest is placed in a bush, a hedge, or a fruit-tree, not above eight or ten feet above 
the ground, but occasionally higher. Naumann says that it seldom nests in fruit-trees, but 
frequently in pollard willows and poplars; and Mr. Collett informs me that in Norway it nests 
in juniper bushes, fruit-trees, or in low conifers, especially Pinus sylvestris. Occasionally its nest 
