GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION
Most races in Europe and the Western Palearctic closely resemble C. c carduelis described previously, and little difference is noticeable in the field without direct comparison; most differences relate to clinal vari­ation in tone or depth of colour of upperparts or underparts, red and white on head, and wing and bill length and depth. Race britannica averages slightly darker brown on mantle, back and sides of breast, while niediecki is paler or greyer on mantle and back; races on Atlantic islands are smaller in size and have reduced white tips to wings, and birds of race loudoni are noticeably very dark earth-brown on upperparts and on breast patches. Eastern races subulata, paropanisi and caniceps have black of head replaced by pale grey, this colour continuing to sides of neck and onto mantle, back and scapulars, palest of all in subulata and greyest or heaviest in caniceps; paropanisi has a longer and slightly heavier bill. VOICE Call is a shrill or ringing 'pee-uu' or 'tsee-yu', occasionally followed by a twittering note in flight; alarm or aggression call is a harsh or grating 'zeez' or 'eeez'. Song is a pleasant and very characteristic rapid tinkling 'tsswit-witt-witt' repeated with various twittering, buzzing 'zee-zee' notes added, creating a fast and liquid canary-like song, usually given from a prominent songpost such as a treetop, post or telegraph wire etc. Song period from end of February to mid-July and again from late September to December.

DISTRIBUTION
C. c. carduelis: west and central Europe (Pyrenees, northern Spain east to northern Italy, central Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania and the Black Sea, north to southern Scandinavia (north to about 64°N) and southwest Finland east to the Urals.
C. c. britannica: Britain, Channel Islands and the Netherlands.
C. c. parva: Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Spain (south of the Pyrenees), extreme southwest France, Balearic Islands, Morocco, northern Algeria, northern Tunisia and northern Libya.
C. c. tschusii: Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily.
C. c. balcanica: central and eastern Romania south to Thrace, Greece, Crete, Albania and southern Yugoslavia (Dalmatia and Macedonia).
C. c. niediecki: Rhodes, Karpathos, Cyprus, Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon south to southern Israel (Negev) and northern Egypt (Nile delta, western oases and northern Sinai).
C. c. major: western Siberia east of the Urals to the western Altai mountains and the Yenisei River, south to about Semipalatinsk.
C. c. brevirostris: Crimea and the Caucasus to northeast Turkey and northwest Iran.
C. c. loudoni: extreme southern Caucasus (Azer­baijan) and northern Iran (to the southern Caspian districts).

Grey-headed races:
C. c. paropanisi: southeast Iran through Afghanistan and Central Asia east to the Tien Shan and the Dzungarian Ala Tau in north­west Sinkiang, China.
C. c. subulata: southern central Siberia north to about 60'N east to Lake Baikal and northwest Mon­golia and south to the southern Altai ranges.
C. c. caniceps: southern Central Asia, extreme south of Turkmenia and Tadzhikstan (Pamirs) to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, western Hima­layas and Nepal (to southwest Tibet?).