GOLDFINCH.. 395 



Variations op Plumage. — I have not met with any remark- 

 able accidental differences of colour in wild birds, although in 

 captivity individuals may sometimes be seen of a dusky brown, 

 or more or less white or cream-coloured. As in other birds, 

 the feathers become ragged in summer, but the changes thereby 

 induced are not great, the white tips of the quills and tail- 

 feathers being, however, more or less abraded. 



Habits. — It is not my purpose to treat of caged birds, so 

 that we shall escape a great deal of unnecessary sentimentalism, 

 and save the time that might otherwise be lost in learning how 

 dear a pet was Matilda's Goldfinch, how sweetly it sung, how 

 neatly it preened its plumage, how delightedly it nibbled the 

 nice bit of white sugar presented to it, and how excruciating 

 were its agonies, as well as those of its gentle mistress, when 

 its little dear bones were crunched by the serried teeth of cruel 

 grimalkin, that sworn foe of all bir diets. Let us stroll abroad 

 on this fine autumnal day, wdien the sun shines brightly on the 

 yellow fields, and the thistle down floats along on the gentle 

 breeze, gliding like snow-flakes over the river. There, on that 

 old pasture, is the source of the plumy eruption, a forest of tall 

 weeds, wdiich the husbandman ought to have pulled up and 

 burnt before they had time to perfect their seeds. See what 

 tufts of down are scattered about by those little birds that seem 

 bent on demolishing all the heads, anthodia, or capitula, as the 

 botanists term them. How curiously they hang on the prickly 

 stems and leaves, with what adroitness do they thrust their 

 bills into the heart of the involucres, and how little do they 

 regard us as they ply their pleasant pursuit, unconscious of 

 danger, and piping their mellow call-notes ! Now, some of 

 them have perceived us ; they fly off, chuckling, to a distant 

 clump of thistles ; and as we approach, others shift their sta- 

 tions ; but as yet the main body has no thoughts of retreating. 

 Let us stand still to observe them. They flutter over the 

 plants, cling to the stalks, bend in various attitudes, disperse 

 the down, already dry and easily separable, pick out the peri- 

 carps one by one, and swallow them. There comes a stray 

 cow pursued by the herd boy. The birds suddenly intermit 



