GREEN GROSBEAK.

Coccothraustes chloris, Elem.

 

Le Gros-bec verdier.

 

 

Tur 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
orchards, shrubberies and cultivated lands, and it is one of the most familiar and docile of our

outspread wings and tail during flight attracting the

 

 

gardens,
native birds ; its
eye with colours which are scarcely surpassed in beauty
by any one of the Fringilide. 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 Mringilla 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.