THE GOLDFINCH. 65 
Family—FRINGILLIDAE. Subfamily—FRINGILLINA:. 
THE GOLDFINCH. 
Carduelis elegans, STEPH. 
R. SHARPE states that this bird inhabits Europe generally, except the 
D extreme north; the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the countries bordering 
the Mediterranean: it is a winter visitant to Egypt and Palestine. In Siberia it 
extends to Omsk and Krasnoyarsk, and winters in Turkestan. 
In Great Britain the Goldfinch is pretty generally distributed throughout 
England, and in suitable localities in Scotland and Ireland, though the wholesale 
destruction of woods, plantations and so-called waste land has rendered the species 
comparatively rare and local in many parts of Great Britain. In the north of 
Kent, where the nest might be obtained fairly commonly, year after year, about a 
quarter of a century ago, it is now hardly ever met with, excepting perhaps in 
strictly private gardens, pleasure-grounds, and orchards: indeed, I believe it is 
fully fifteen years since I last saw a wild Kentish Goldfinch in the summer-time. 
This is the most beautiful of our British Finches: the adult male has the 
forehead broadly satiny crimson, extending at the sides as a superciliary streak 
which sometimes passes behind the eye and unites with a broad patch of the same 
colour on the front of the face below the lores, and on the throat; the lores, feathers 
at base of beak and chin black; crown and feathers behind the cheeks black; 
cheeks snow white (slightly stained in the centre with buffish brown, especially in 
young birds) continuous with a white belt encircling the back of the throat: back 
greyish copper-brown, with a transverse white spot on the nape; wings blue-black, 
occasionally slightly glossed with Prussian-green on the lesser coverts; greater 
coverts golden-yellow; the basal two-thirds of the primaries, excepting the first, 
with the outer webs bright golden-yellow, the secondaries also with broad yellow 
bases, so that the wing appears to be broadly belted with yellow; inner primaries 
and outer .secondaries tipped with white, inner secondaries with buffish-brown ; 
upper tail coverts whitish, washed with buffish-brown ; tail feathers blue-black, the 
central ones tipped with white, the two outer ones with a large oval white patch 
on the inner web; under parts mostly white; a band across the fore-chest, the 
sides of breast, and the flanks bright fawn-coloured; under tail-coverts washed 
VoL. m1. M 
