the southern hills, congregating in flocks, the sexes apart, the male flocks appearing greatly to 

 exceed the female in number. Early in spring they all disappear, and return to the highest 

 parts of Lebanon, where they breed abundantly in May and June, among the mulberry-groves of 

 Hazrum and Ehden. We found them very plentiful as high as the cedars ; and in the trees of 

 the famous grove we took several nests." Mr. C. W. Wyatt shot one in Wady Feiran, on the 

 peninsula of Sinai ; and Von Heuglin writes that " it has been several times observed and killed 

 in Lower Egypt, namely at Alexandria. Dr. Hartmann saw it near Thebes in February ; and in 

 the Berlin Museum are examples from Syria and Arabia." Captain Shelley states that he met 

 with several specimens of this bird near Damietta in March, and on the 28th of that month 

 shot one in order to verify the species. " It is only a winter visitant to Egypt, and appears to be 

 rarely seen above Cairo, and probably never ranges above the First Cataract." In Northern and 

 Western Africa it is very rare ; Major Loche states that several were taken near Algiers in 

 December 1859 ; and our friend Mr. Taczanowski informs us that he killed a male bird at 

 Mahuna, in Algeria, where, he adds, it is very rare. In Algeria it is replaced by a closely 

 allied but perfectly distinct species, Fringilla spodiogena, which is confined to Northern Africa ; 

 and on the Canaries another species occurs. 



To the eastward the Chaffinch extends into Baluchistan, whence Mr. Blanford brought home 

 a series of skins, which he has kindly placed at our disposal for examination, and which we 

 find similar in every respect to our European bird ; it is, however, not recorded by any of the 

 Siberian travellers, excepting Pallas, who writes respecting it " per omnem Bossiam et Siberiam 

 occurrit;" but as there appears to us no further note of its ever having occurred there, we think 

 that this statement is open to doubt. Few of our common birds are better known than the 

 Chaffinch ; for during the summer scarcely an orchard is without them, or in the winter season a 

 farmyard where this cheerful bird is not found pecking amongst the refuse, and getting a living 

 from what seeds and grain it can pick up. In the summer its cheerful spink, spink, is con- 

 tinually heard, especially in the gardens and about cultivated ground ; for next to the House- 

 Sparrow the Chaffinch most affects the neighbourhood of dwellings. At that season of the year 

 they are met with scattered in pairs all over the country ; but so soon as the autumn sets in some 

 migrate southwards, and the remainder collect in flocks and range about the fields or frequent 

 the farmyards. In its habits it is active ; and its movements are very quick ; when on the ground 

 it does not run, but moves by short hops, and when alarmed flies up and perches on the nearest 

 tree ; the flight is swift, and consists of a succession of undulations, with short intervals of 

 cessation. When hopping on the ground, or when suddenly alarmed, the male has a habit of 

 raising the feathers of the crown, almost appearing as if it had a crest. 



During the breeding-season the Chaffinch is generally distributed over Northern and Central 

 Europe, but few, comparatively speaking, remaining to breed in the south. In Great Britain it 

 is, Mr. A. G. More writes, " the commonest and probably the most abundant of our Finches, 

 nesting regularly as far north as Caithness, but appears only as a visitor in the northern Scottish 

 isles." Its nest is usually placed on a fruit- or thorn-tree, or, indeed, on the branch of almost any 

 sort of tree where a suitable position offers itself; and sometimes, though not so often, it is con- 

 structed in a low hedge. It is a pattern of careful and neat architecture, and exhibits in its 

 mode of decoration no mean proof of the good taste of this feathered craftsman. Those built on 



