G II EENEINCIL 
COCCO TIIRA TJSTES CIILORIS. 
The well-known Greenfinch may be found in almost every part of the British Islands— passing the summer 
only in those districts in which sufficient cover for nesting-purposes is to he met with, though at times a 
visitor to any wild and open portions of our coast-line where the seeds of various plants afford a supply 
of food. I have recognized this species during summer and autumn in many parts of the Highlands ; with 
hut few exceptions, however, the birds Avere only noticed in districts where cultivation was carried on. 
Though strong and hardy, the Greenfinch appears somewhat susceptible to cold, but few, when compared 
with the numbers of either the Yellow-Hammer or Chaffinch, remaining to face the wintry snow-squalls in the 
more remote glens. 
In all the southern and eastern counties of England with which I am best acquainted this species is 
common at every season of the year, joining not unfrequently during winter in flocks with other Finches, 
Buntings, or Sparrows, and resorting to farm-buildings and stackyards. On the 1st of February 1882, during a 
slight frost, I watched for some time a party of eighteen or twenty clinging to the sides of a stack of oats that 
had been cut in half; while crawling, after the manner of Titmice, up the even surface they eagerly extracted 
the grain lying within their reach. Late in autumn and on through the winter Greenfinches may often be 
seen harbouring about the shingle-banks on the coast of Sussex to the west of Shorcham. Chaffinches, Twites, 
and Linnets will usually be found in their company, or resorting in small separate parties to the same 
range of beach, the seeds of the numberless rank weeds that grow on this barren waste proving the attraction 
Though Greenfinches are usually supposed to commence their nesting-operations so early as April, icy may 
not unfrequently be seen in company after that date. For several days after the 13th of May, 1807, a succession 
of small flocks was encountered along the links to the east of Dunbar, m East Lothian: as far as I was able to 
ascertain by watching their movements, these birds were making tl.e.r way northwards along the coast, a 
week later others, though in reduced numbers, were noticed on the sandy links near Gullane. 
While residin'* 1 in East Lothian I remarked that Greenfinches nested in considerable numbers, often m 
close proximity to one another, in the thorn hedges surrounding the plantations of beech near the coast of the 
Firth’of Forth In the south of England this habit of breeding in company may also be observed, in our 
garden near Brighton the birds were exceedingly plentiful during the summer of 1883, then- nests in some 
instances bein, placed so thickly that after the autumn gales had carried off the eaves from the shrubs and 
instances bein p ' ^ counte4 from one spot The dense bushes of Oogreuu, as well as 
young 1CC ® bc gelected in preference to other quarters, though willow, poplar, lime, elm, and red-may 
were" alTwell patronized. One exceedingly curious ^ 0 !^ being 
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