M ifh respect to the song of the Greenfinch, I find it so admirably described by tbe Rev. C. A. Johns in 
his ‘ British Birds in tlieir Haunts,’ that I cannot possibly do better than give the passage entire : — “ The 
lively greenish yellow tint of the plumage on its throat and breast sufficiently distinguishes the Greenfinch 
from any other British bird ; and its note, when once identified, can be confounded with no other song. 
Let any person who wishes to obtain a sight of one, walk anywhere in the country where there are trees, 
on a bright sunny day in May or June, and listen to a monotonous long-drawn croak, trying to pronounce 
the syllable ‘ twe-e-e.’ No matter what other birds may be tuning their lays, the harsh monotone of the 
Greenfinch, if one be near, will be heard among them, harmonizing with none, and suggestive of heat and 
weariness. In a few seconds it will be repeated, without a shadow of variation either in tone or duration ; 
and, if it be traced out, the author of the noise (music I cannot call it) will be discovered perched among the 
branches of a moderately high tree, repeating his mournful ditty with extreme complacency for an hour 
together. Very often it takes advantage of the midday silence of the groves, and pipes away without any 
other competitor than the Yellow-Hammer, whose song, like his own, is the constant accompaniment of 
sultry weather. The Greenfinch has another note, which is heard most frequently, but not exclusively, iu 
spring. This is a simple plaintive chirp, which may be easily imitated by buman whistling: it resembles 
somewhat one of the call-notes of the Canary-bird or Brown Linnet, and, being ftdl and sweet, barmonizes 
with the woodland chorus far better than the monotonous croak described above. Another of the notes is 
a double one, and closely resembles that of the ‘ Pee-wit hence it is called, in some places, ‘ Pee-sweep.’” 
We learn from Mr. George Dawson Rowley’s communication to ‘The Ibis’ for 1862, p. 384, that the 
Greenfinch is one of the few Frlngilline birds included among the foster-parents of the parasitical Cuckoo. 
The situations resorted to for the purpose of nesting have been already mentioned ; with regard to the 
nests themselves, they vary greatly in the materials of which they ai'e composed, as will be seen from 
Thompson’s description of one found by him in Ireland, Macgi Hi v ray’s record of another taken by him in 
Scotland, and two or three by myself in England. 
“ A nest,” says Thompson, “found in a beech hedge in the wiki district, near Belfast, above mentioned, 
was so tastefully lined as to be considered worth preserving. Outwardly it was constructed of roots inter- 
woven with mosses ; but mixed with black and white hairs in the lining were swans-down and thistle-seed, 
this last being evidently made use of on account of its plumed appendages, all of which remained attached 
to the seed.” 
The Scotch nest is described by Macgillivray as “ of good workmanship, being composed externally of 
fibrous roots, slender twigs, and straws, internally of finer materials of tbe same kind, intermixed with moss, 
and lined with hair of different kinds.” 
A nest, taken by myself near London, was built almost entirely of wool mixed with moss, a few twigs 
being interwoven on the outside; while internally it was composed of very fine rootlets, wool, and a few 
feathers. A second, in the garden of John Noble, Esq., at Berry Hill, Taplow, had an outer frame- 
work of roughly interlaced roots, to which succeeded a course of closely intenvoven fine rootlets and moss 
sparsely lined with horse-hair. 
The eggs, which are from four to six in number, are of a bluish white, spotted at the larger end with 
purplish grey and blackish brown, and are about nine or ten lines in length, by six or seven in breadth. 
“Although,” says Thompson, “the Greenfinch cannot strictly be said to build in company, yet as many 
as twenty nests may occasionally be found in a moderate-sized shrubbery, and not unfrequently on the 
than of thesame plant.” 
The food of the Greenfinch consists of the seeds of various grasses, especially the cultivated kinds, and 
other plants. Occasionally the bird becomes troublesome by resorting to fields of newly-sown wheat ; but 
Thompson tells us that it is “ much fonder of the seed of the corn-marygold {Chrysanthemum segetuni) 
than of the grain among which that handsome weed grows.” 
The sexes differ but little in their colouring, the general distribution of tbe tints being the same ; but 
those of the female are less brilliant than those of the male, and the yellow of her undersurface does not extend 
on to tbe flanks. In spring the bill is nearly white, especially tbe basal portion of the under mandible, the 
ti})s and the culmen being clouded with a dusky hue. The nestlings are rendered conspicuous by the stria- 
tion of the feathers of the undersurface ; these feathers are changed at an early period in the autumn, when 
the young brood very closely resemble their parents in their winter dress. 
The Plate represents an adult of each sex and a nest of young birds on a branch of the pink-flowering May, 
all of the natural size. 
