370 GOLDFINCH 



habitual representative of the genus, and it occurs from thence to 

 the Rocky Mountains. In breeding-habits it differs from the 

 commoner species, not placing its eggs in tree-holes ; but how far 

 this difference is voluntary may be doubted, for in the countries it 

 frequents trees are wanting. It is a larger and stouter bird, and 

 in the male the white cheek-patches take a more crescentic form, 

 while the head is glossed with purple rather than green, and the 

 white scapulars are not elongated. The New World also possesses a 

 y third and still more beautiful species of the genus in G. albeola, 



i^^^v^A-; known in books as the Buffle-headed Duck, and to American^f owlers 

 '^ , J ^^ ^^6 " Spirit-Duck " and " Butter-ball " — the former name being 

 CffV^^t'^ applied from its rapidity in diving, and the latter from its exceed- 

 ing fatness in autumn. This is of small size, but the lustre of the 

 feathers in the male is brilliant, and exhibits a deep plum- 

 coloured gloss on the head. It breeds in trees, and is supposed to 

 have occurred more than once in Britain. 



GOLDFIlSrCH (German Goldfink ^) the Fringilla carduelis of Lin- 

 naeus and the Carduelis elegans of later authors, an extremely well- 

 known bird found over the greater parts of Europe and North Africa, 

 and eastwards to Persia and Turkestan. Its gay plumage is matched 

 by its sprightly nature ; and together they make it one of the most 

 favourite cage-birds among all classes. As a songster it is indeed 

 surpassed by many other species, but its docility and ready attach- 

 ment to its master or mistress make up foi- any defect in its vocal 

 powers. In some parts of England the trade in Goldfinches is very 

 considerable. In 1860 Mr. Hussey reported (Zool. p. 7144) the 

 average annual captures near Worthing to exceed 11,000 dozens — 

 nearly all being cock-birds ; and a Avitness before a committee of 

 the House of Commons in 1873 stated that, when a boy, he could 

 take forty dozens in a morning near Brighton. In these districts 

 and others the number has of late years become much reduced, 

 owing doubtless in part to the fatal practice of catching the birds 

 just before or during the breeding season ; but perhaps the 

 strongest cause of their growing scarcity throughout the kingdom 

 has been the constant breaking-up of waste lands, and the extirpation 

 of Aveeds (particularly of the Order Comjyosifa}) essential to the im- 

 proved system of agriculture ; for in many parts of Scotland, East 

 Lothian for instance, where Goldfinches were once more plentiful 

 than Sparrows, they are now only rare stragglers, and yet there they 

 have not been thinned by netting. Though Goldfinches may 

 occasionally be observed in the coldest Aveather, incomparably the 

 largest number leaA^e Britain in autumn, returning in spring, and 

 resorting to our gardens and orchards to breed, when the lively 



^ The more common German name, however, is Distelfink (Thistle-Finch) or 

 aticglitz. 



