GOLDFINCHES 219 



What a contrast between this dainty bright- 

 coloured crowd of feathered drinkers and that of the 

 pushing, fighting, bellowing beasts ! And what a sight 

 for a boy's eyes! There I would stay in the hot sun 

 to watch them when all the others, the work of 

 watering over, would hurry away to the shade of the 

 house and trees, and my desire to see them more 

 closely, to look at them as one can look at a flower, 

 was so insistent and so intense as to be almost a pain. 

 But I had no binocular and didn't even know that 

 such an instrument existed; and at last to satisfy 

 the craving I took it into my head to catch them — 

 to fill my hands with goldfinches and have them in 

 numbers. It was easily done. I put an old deal box 

 or packing-case over a pool of water, one side propped 

 up with a stick, to which a long string was attached. 

 With the end of the string in my hand I sat and 

 waited, while birds of many kinds came and took 

 their half-dozen sips and flew away, but when a 

 flock of goldfinches appeared and gathered to drink 

 under the box, I pulled the string and made them 

 prisoners. Then I transferred them to a big cage, 

 and, placing it on a stand under the trees, sat down 

 to feast my eyes on the sight — to look at a goldfinch 

 as I would look at a flower. And I had my reward 

 and was supremely happy, but it was a short-lived 

 happiness, for very soon the terror and distress of 

 my little captives, and their senseless frantic efforts 

 to get out of their prison, began to annoy and make 

 me miserable. I say "senseless" because I had no 

 intention of keeping them in captivity, and to my 



