GREEN GROSBEAK. 
Coccothraustes chloris, Flem. 
Le Gros-bec verdier. 
Tue Green Grosbeak is abundantly dispersed over the whole of Europe, where it is strictly indigenous, 
and as far as our observation has gone is nowhere migratory. Its natural habits lead it to frequent gardens, 
orchards, shrubberies and cultivated lands, and it is one of the most familiar and docile of our native birds ; its 
outspread wings and tail during flight attracting the eye with colours which are scarcely surpassed in beauty 
by any one of the Fringillde. When spring has clothed the vegetable world with foliage, the Green Gros- 
beak constructs its nest on a branch in the most leafy part of shrubs or hedgerows, often at a considerable 
distance from the ground, the nest being generally composed of leaves, moss, grass and small twigs, lined 
with wool, hair and a few feathers. The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale blueish white, speckled 
at the larger end with reddish brown. The young are distinguished from the adult during the greater part 
of the first autumn by the strong oblong dashes of brown which pervade the breast and under surface. This 
particular feature, together with the robust bill, short tail, and bulky body, characterizes it as a true Gros- 
beak (Coccothraustes), at the extreme limits of which genus we consider this bird should be placed, where it 
would appear to form a union with the true species of Fringzlla as restricted by authors of the present day. 
At the commencement of autumn the Green Grosbeak assembles in considerable numbers, with Chaffinches 
and Buntings, and being driven by the severities of the season from fields and gardens, retires to farm-yards, 
where a bountiful supply of grain yields it a subsistence. 
The male differs from the female in having the plumage more brilliant, and by: rather exceeding her in 
size. 
The male has the whole of the upper surface of a bright olive-green, passing into yellow ; the quills blackish 
grey with their outer webs bright gamboge yellow; the tail-feathers, with the exception of the two middle 
ones, which are grey margined with light yellow, and their exterior edges, which are greyish brown, are of 
the same fine gamboge yellow as the wings; under parts greenish, passing into sulphurous yellow; legs 
brown ; bill white with a tinge of pink. 
Our Plate represents the adult male, and young bird of the first autumn, of the natural size. 
