Ornithological and Other Oddities 



bridge, and Worcester in Massachusetts ; also 

 in parts of New Jersey, and about Portland and 

 other localities in Oregon, especially in the last- 

 named, while he thought its naturalisation pro- 

 bable in St. Louis and Cincinnati. The birds 

 had been introduced in small numbers at all the 

 places mentioned, and they must still be doing 

 well, for Mr. R. Ridgway gives this imported 

 species a place in his systematic work on the 

 birds of North and Middle America ; mentioning, 

 in addition to its United States habitats, the 

 occurrence of specimens in Toronto and Ontario, 

 and the fact of its naturalisation in Cuba. 



In the West Indies the goldfinch has another 

 footing beside that island, its introduction in this 

 case being accidental. Mr. D. W. Prentiss, 

 writing about the same time as Mr. Nehrling, 

 mentioned that a number of these birds escaped 

 from a vessel in St. George's in Bermuda in 

 1893, and had multiplied rapidly, so as to be 

 quite common about Walsingham and Pointer's 

 Vale ; he had seen a flock containing more than 

 two dozen. This accidental occurrence of the 

 goldfinch is a case, apparently, of bird-history 

 repeating itself, for long ago canaries got natu- 

 ralised in Elba by escaping from a ship, although 

 they were ultimately all caught up after they had 

 become established. 



Last of all, the goldfinch has turned up in a 



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