220 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



were now practically gone. They had gone because 

 they were too much sought after; then he added: "I 

 daresay they would come again if there was a law made 

 to stop us from catching them." I expressed the hope 

 that such a law would come in time, at which he shook 

 his head and grunted. Now Somerset had such a law 

 and I hear that goldfinches are again to be seen in 

 the Wells district. In fact, county after county has 

 taken up the cause of this pretty and useful little bird, 

 and in a small map of the country lying before me, in 

 which the counties where the goldfinch receives protec- 

 tion throughout the year are coloured red, I find that 

 on more than three-fourths of the entire area of Eng- 

 land and Wales the bird is now safeguarded. As a 

 result it is increasing all over the country, but it will 

 be many years before we have it in its former numbers. 

 How abundant it was about eighty years ago, before its 

 long decline began, may be gathered from the following 

 passage in Cobbett's Rural Rides describing his journey 

 from Highworth to Malmesbury in Wiltshire. 



"Between Somerford and Ocksey, I saw, on the side 

 of the road, more goldfinches than I had ever seen to- 

 gether; I think fifty times as many as I had ever seen 

 at one time in my life. The favourite food of the 

 goldfinch is the seed of the thistle. The seed is just 

 now dead ripe. The thistles all cut and carried away 

 from the fields by the harvest ; but they grow alongside 

 the roads, and in this place in great quantities. So 

 that the goldfinches were got here in flocks, and, as 

 they continued to fly before me for nearly half a mile 



