CARDUELIS. — CHRYSOMITRIS. 47 



Genus CARDUELIS, Brisson, Orn. iii. p. 53 (1760). 

 Carduelis = a thistle-finch, in Pliny, H. N. 10. 42 ; from carduus = a thistle. 



Carduelis elegans. Goldfinch. 



Carduelis elegans^ Stephens, Gen. Zool. xiv. p. 30 



(1826). 



Fringilla carduelis, Naum. v. p. 136 ; Hewitson, p. 196 ; Gray, 



p. 95 j Harting, p. 27. 

 Carduelis elegans, Macg. i. p. 393 ; Yarr. ed. 3, i. p. 538 ; id. 

 ed. 3, i. p. 565; Newton, ii. p. 117; Gould, iii. pi. 36; 

 Dresser, iii. p. 537. 

 Goldfinch, Yarr. ed. 1, i. p. 490. 



Megans = choice, elegant. 



A resident or partial migrant in nearly every county. 

 Almost universally distributed throughout the Western 

 Palsearctic Region, though not reaching far north. 



Genus CHRYSOMITRIS, Bote, Isis, 1828, p. 322. 



Chrysomittis, xpvoinTpis = with a girdle or head-band of gold, from xpv^os 

 -f fiirpa. 



[Chrysomitris citrinella. Citbil Finch. 



Fringilla Citrinella, Linn. S. N. i. p. 320 (1766). 

 FringiUa citrinella, Naum. v. p. 155. 

 Chrysomitris citrinella, Dresser, iii. p. 535. 

 Citril Finch, Newton, ii. p. 113, note. 



Citrinella, diminutiTe of citrmus, for which see Serinus, p. 48. 



One was said to have occurred in England (Zoologist, s. s. 

 pp. 1984, 2022), through a mistake. An inhabitant of 

 Central and Southern Europe, breeding in the mountainous 

 districts; not known east of Constantinople, and only a rare 

 straggler to the Cisatlantean subregion.J 



