58 Birds I Rave Kept. 



voice, quickness of instinct, remarkable cleverness, proved 

 docility, tender affection, are all united in this delightful little 

 bird; and if it were rare, or if it came from a foreign country, 

 it would then be valued as it deserves." However, it is fast 

 fulfilling one of the conditions which the great naturalist con- 

 sidered necessary to its being aiDpreciated, it is becoming rare. 



The Goldfinch is rather a small bird, measuring five and 

 three quarter inches in length, two of which belong to the 

 tail. The beak is five lines long, very pointed, rather flattened 

 at the sides, and of a w^hitish colour, with a brownish tip. 

 The front of the head and a border round the beak are a 

 fine reddish crimson; the back, shoulders, and sides of the 

 neck are a rich brown; immediately round the beak is a narrow 

 circle of black, which is also the colour of the wings and 'tail; 

 the centre of the wings is marked by a patch of golden 

 yellow, and the flight and tail feathers are tipped with white. 



The female is a trifle smaller, and is less brilliantly coloured 

 than the male. Before moulting the young have grey heads, 

 and are then known to dealers and bird-catchers as ''grey- 

 pates," of which thousands are annually caught soon after 

 leaving the nest, often before they can feed themselves, with, 

 as might be expected, the result that nine of these helpless 

 little creatures die in a few days, out of every ten that are 

 caught. 



Few birds of the same species, not even excepting the 

 Bullfinch, vary as much as the Goldfinch does in size and 

 colour: differences, however, which are not in themselves 

 sufficient to constitute the birds so differing into separate 

 species; for the large Goldfinch, and the small, the brilliantly 

 coloured, and the dingy, the white-legged and the dark, and 

 the clievril (one with a white streak from the base of the 

 lower mandible down the breast) are all Goldfinches; just as 

 a man of four foot and a half, and one of six foot four inches, 

 and a dark and a fair man, are all men. Again, the dis- 

 tinction into "races," one of which is supposed to emigrate. 



