396 CARDUELIS ELEGANS. 



tlieir labours, p<ause for a moment, and fly off in succession. 

 You observe how ligbtly and buoyantly they cleave the air, 

 each bird fluttering its little wings, descending in a curved line, 

 mounting again, and speeding along. They wheel around the 

 field, now^ descending almost to the ground, now springing up 

 again. Some of them suddenly alight, when, the example thus 

 set, all betake themselves to the tiny thicket of dried and 

 withered weeds, and in settling display to the delighted eye the 

 beautiful tints of their plumage, as with fluttering wings and 

 expanded tail they hover for a moment to select a landing place 

 amid the prickly points that seem to stand forth as if to pre- 

 vent asfgression. The Goldfinch doubtless would smile at the 

 threat of the " Nemo me impune lacesset,"' wdiich every Scot 

 calls to mind when he thinks of a thistle ; for to it the spears 

 of the Cnicus lanceolatus are not more formidable than the 

 bayonets of the<3nicus palustris, or the daggers of the Cnicus 

 arvensis. From all these species, as well as others, it obtains 

 a portion of its food, and when thistles are not plentiful, it 

 attacks the heads of the Knapw^eed, Centaurea nigra, and other 

 plants of the Syngenesian tribe. 



But its food is not exclusively composed of the seeds of the 

 Compositse ; for it also eats those of Graminese, Caryophylleae, 

 and other herbaceous plants ; as well as those of the Birch, 

 Alder, and some trees of a similar nature. I find it recorded 

 in the first note-book I ever wrote, that in November 1816, in 

 which year, as the same document informs me, " I began the 

 study of zoology, and in consequence purchased a fowling- 

 piece,"" I shot " three at Hilton, near Aberdeen, where they 

 had collected in immense flocks to eat the hawthorn seeds." 

 Flocks of several hundreds, in fact, I have more than once met 

 with ; but it is nevertheless true, as Mr. Selby observes, that 

 " Goldfinches do not (usually) associate in large flocks ; their 

 societies rarely exceeding twenty in number.'"* That from 

 which I obtained the three specimens which furnished the de- 

 scriptions given at the commencement of this article, was com- 

 posed of about a dozen, which, on the 19th September 1833, 

 were busily picking the seeds of Centaurea nigra, at Caroline 

 Park, near Newhaven, when the ruthless prowler thinned their 



