THE GOLDFINCH 



Carduelis elegans 



This elegant and beautiful Finch is much rarer 

 and far more locally dispersed now than it was say 

 fifty years ago. To a very great extent its scarcity 

 in or even entire absence from many districts where 

 it formerly was common, is chiefly due to the whole- 

 s lie way in which it has been netted and snared by 

 bird-catchers Less than forty years ago it was 

 recorded that more than one hundred and thirty 

 thousand (chiefly cocks) Goldfinches were caught 

 near Worthing alone every year! The late Henry 

 Swaysland assured us, many years ago, that when a 

 boy he could take as many as five hundred of these 

 Flinches in asinole mornins:. Few birds could stand 

 such wholesale destruction long, and the wonder is 

 that the Goldfinch maintains its position as a British, 

 or even as a European species at all ! Another cause 

 of the ciecreased numbers of this bird is the reclam- 

 ntion of many waste lands which has destroyed 

 favourite haunts and almo.st unlimited supplies of 



