on the European goldfinch.



101



cages, were wild and clung to the wirework near the roof for weeks

after their liberation in an aviary, some which I turned out on the

afternoon of the same day in which they had been captured settled

down quietly at once and showed not the slightest fear of me when

I passed underneath them.


The wildest goldfinch I ever possessed was one which I pur¬

chased out of pity from a bird catcher. He kept it in a little cage

measuring about three inches by six and six or seven inches in

height, with one perch only, and used it as a brace-bird when he

went out with the nets. The man called it a wonnerful tame

bird ” and informed me that the proper way to tame a finch quickly

was to swing it about in its cage and when moving from place to

place always carry the cage under your arm. Poor little mite ! such

treatment by a frowsy red-haired man verging on fifty years of age

was awful to contemplate, and if utter depression and nervous shrink¬

ing indicated tameness, most assuredly the birdcatcher’s plan had

been eminently successful: I never saw any creature look more

scared and utterly dispirited; but when I turned it into a flight the

little beggar was so frantic that I was greatly tempted to set it at

liberty in the garden; yet in time it somewhat quieted down,

although it never became so trustful as other members of its species

which I have possessed.


The wild life generally and the character of the nest and eggs

of this bird have been rendered so familiar to bird-lovers in the ever

increasing number of works dealing with British birds which have

been published that I can see little use in describing them here.

Host of my readers know by sight the soft neat little cup-shaped

nest, often placed on the lichen-covered branch of some venerable

fruit-tree, or much more rarely in a hedge. The lively jerky little

song of no great merit I indicated in words (written down as they

were being sung) in my account of the Goldfinch in “ British Birds

with their Nests and Eggs” as also (of course) in the somewhat

modified reprint of the Passerine portion of that work illustrated

with coloured plates, entitled “ Birds of Great Britain and Ireland.”


Now before leaving the goldfinch I think I ought to advert to

a somewhat disputed point touching its decrease in numbers in this

country. It has been assumed and even positively asserted by some



