7S Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
Finches. 
The Chaffinch ( Fringilla coelebs ) is one of our commonest 
birds, and has gained for itself many local names, including the 
following : Spink, Skelly, Scobby, Skilfer, Shell-apple, Buck- 
finch, Horsefinch, Beeckfinch, Copperfinch, Wliitefincb, Piedfinch, 
and Wet-bird. The conspicuous white bars on the wings are 
common to both sexes, but the male is much the handsomer of 
the two, and is well worth a close examination. In length it 
measures about six inches. The lichen-covered nest, carefully 
lined with hair and feathers, is wonderfully compact and beau- 
tiful, but, like the bird itself, is so common that it does not 
meet with the admiration it deserves. 
The chaffinch feeds largely on insects, and bi’ings up its 
young almost entirely on an insect diet. It may be seen catch- 
ing flies on the wing, or diligently searching the foliage of trees 
for caterpillars and aphides, including the kind known as 
American blight. It also eats beeckmast and quantities of 
small seeds, amongst them those of many noxious weeds. 
Some of the seeds are shelled before being eaten, but others 
are swallowed without any such preparation. I have seen a 
chaffinch pecking at the flowers of a species of Polygonum 
or knot-grass before any seed was visible. The cones of the 
Scotch fir and similar trees also furnish food for the chaffinch in 
the shape of the seeds which they contain, and the membranous 
scales may be seen fluttering down deprived of the seed by the 
birds busily engaged in the branches overhead. The chaffinch 
may likewise be observed with other small birds picking about 
on the tangle of the seashore. Though it eats corn, it. is only 
when its numbers are very great that it causes any serious loss 
to the farmer by so doing, but at times it does considerable 
damage to young turnips, radishes, and similar crops. In winter, 
flocks composed exclusively of one sex may be observed, but 
generally the sexes feed in company. 
The Greenfinch, or Green Linnet ( Goccothraustes chloris, fig. 9), 
is a stoutly built bird, rather more than six inches in length, 
and the colour of its plumage is green of various shades, with 
bright-yellow markings on the wings and tail. Young birds 
are light-brown in colour, with darker streaks on the breast. It 
is a noisy bird, and in the spring its notes, which differ widely 
from each other, are uttered incessantly. 
As might be inferred from the shape of its powerful bill, 
the greenfinch feeds largely on seeds, including corn and turnip 
seed. When too numerous both this species and the chaffinch 
do considerable damage, and it may be necessaiy to keep them 
