10 



by Dr. Pucheran under the name of Fringilla moreleti, and to ascertain for certain whether it 

 differs from F. tintillon, the species common to the other Atlantic groups, I availed myself of 

 a recent opportunity to compare the specimens I collected in the Azores with the types of 

 F. tintillon and F. moreleti in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The result is, I 

 do not hesitate to say, that there is but one species of Chaffinch in the Atlantic islands, which is 

 shared in common by the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries. A close examination of a large series 

 of specimens shows that considerable variation in size, and some in colour, exists without reference 

 to locality. Out of thirty specimens from the Azores some have the bill larger than others, in 

 some the green gloss of the back begins at the nape of the neck and spreads over the whole 

 upper surface to the tail, in others this colour is very slightly shown, and one female is destitute 

 of any such colouring at all. Three Madeiran specimens have the lateral tail-feathers nearly 

 white, a fourth has very little white on the tail. The same variation is shown in the Azorean 

 specimens. Some males have the frontal feathers black; others, again, are without this mark. 

 My specimens from Madeira and the Azores were all collected between the middle of April and 

 the end of June, and are in breeding-plumage. I do not know at what season of the year the 

 Teneriffe specimens were procured ; but all three are males. The two specimens in Paris, as well 

 as the one lent me by Professor A. Newton, all have the tarsus lighter-coloured than the 

 Azorean birds; but the latter having been in spirits, and the former exposed for years in the 

 gallery of the Museum, I do not attach any importance to this apparent difference. Being, then, 

 unable to reduce the variation observable in the Chaffinch of the Atlantic islands to any sort of 

 law, I have no alternative but to consider, with Professor Barboza du Bocage, that there is but 

 one species, and that Fringilla moreleti must be considered a synonym of the older title 

 F. tintillon. The name which should stand, by the strict law of priority, is F. canariensis, 

 Vieill. ; but as this name is so liable to be confounded with F. canaria, Linnaeus, I think Webb 

 and Berthelot's appellation had best be adhered to." In his paper on the birds of Madeira and 

 the Canaries, Mr. Godman further states that "it is a very common species, though in the 

 Canaries it seems seldom to descend lower than 2000 feet above the sea. In habits it is very 

 like our Chaffinch (F. ccelebs) ; and, like it, the number of males seems greatly to exceed those 

 of the females. It builds a larger and more clumsy nest than our bird ; its eggs are a little 

 larger, but much resemble them in colouring." Messrs. Webb and Berthelot record it as 

 " common in the laurel-groves, which, however, it leaves during the winter, and takes refuge in 

 the gardens and bush-covered localities on the coast. We have retained its common local name 

 of Tintillon, which may be derived from Tintillo (claret-coloured wine), on account of the some- 

 what vinous colour of the male. Tintillo is also the Spanish term for an idiot, or stupid 

 individual who continually repeats the same thing; and its local name may therefore be an 

 allusion to its monotonous song." 



Dr. Carl Bolle met with it chiefly in the laurel-groves in the northern part of Teneriffe, but 

 also common in the chestnut-groves on Palma ; and I translate the following notes he gives 

 respecting this bird : — " It is an inhabitant of what Berthelot calls the second clime, especially 

 where the ericas and laurels abound on the western islands, and appears to me not to be so 

 abundant on Teneriffe. Nor is its name of Tintillon known everywhere. Near Santa Cruz and 

 along the entire south and east coasts it is only occasionally seen during the winter ; and even in 



