224 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



precisely the same plan as that adopted by our 

 fanciers at the present day : — " A kind of antJms, 

 goldfinch, or fool's-coat, commonly called a draw- 

 water, finely marked with red and yellow, and a 

 white bill, which they take with trap cages in Norwich 

 gardens, and fastening a chain about them, tied to a 

 box of water, it makes shift with bill and leg to draw 

 up the water into it from the little pot hanging by 

 the chain about a foot below." I once saw a goldfinch 

 which, as is not unfrequently the case with the bull- 

 finch, had become quite black in confinement from 

 feeding too freely on hempseed.^ The head was darker 

 than the rest of the plumage, and had a deep bluish- 

 black tinge, the general shape of the bird, and the beak, 

 alone affording any clue to its identity. Tliis is the only 

 instance of the kind in this species I have ever met 

 with, although a bird so generally kept in confinement. 

 A common name for this bird in Norfolk and Suffolk 

 is ^'King Harry," or King Harry Redcap, in contra- 

 distinction to King Harry Blackcap, applied to the 

 blackcap warbler (Curruca atricapilla). 



CARDUELIS SPINUS (Linn^us). 



SISKIN. 



The pretty little Siskins visit us regularly towards 

 the end of autumn, and again on their return north- 

 wards about the end of January, but their numbers vary 

 considerably in different seasons, and are not always 

 dependent upon the severity of the weather. I have 

 met with parties of ten or twelve in a flight, in planta- 



* Mr. Newman has recorded in tlae " Zoologist" (p. 4994) the 

 fact of a hawfinch, kept in confinement for six years, having 

 become almost entirely black from the same cause. 



