GOLDFINCH. 121 



from Herefordshire in winter. It is singular that nearly 

 all ornithologists had omitted to notice what birdcatchers 

 had known from time immemorial, but the fact has latterly 

 been recognized by unprofessional observers, and by no one 

 more fully than Mr. Knox (Orn. Rambles, Lett. vii.). In 

 most parts of England, where sufficient food exists, some 

 Goldfinches pass the winter, but the bulk of them — their 

 numbers being increased by foreign arrivals in our Eastern 

 Counties — depart in autumn toward the south coast, and on 

 reaching the seaboard move mostly to the eastward till the 

 opposite shores of the Channel become visible from the 

 Kentish cliffs, and thither they fly. Of those that remain 

 with us, it may be said that they are nearly always shifting 

 their ground — the quest of food probably urging their move- 

 ments, though impatience of extreme cold, from the direct 

 or indirect effects of which they suffer much, has most likely 

 also to do with their flittings. Spots indeed there are, 

 neglected by the agriculturist, wherein some may be seen 

 even at the dreariest season of the year, but those that 

 abide in this country in winter bear no comparison, in point 

 of number, with those that seek their fortune abroad. 



The diminished numbers of this species, owing to so 

 many being netted for cage-birds at or about the breeding- 

 season, has already been noticed, but there is probably a far 

 stronger cause of its growing scarcity throughout the king- 

 dom. This is the continually increasing cultivation of waste 

 lands, and the extirpation of weeds from those already under 

 tillage or used as pasture, essential to the system of high 

 farming which has of late years conferred so many benefits 

 on the nation at large. To expect any change, except for the 

 worse as regard's the Goldfinch, were vain, yet well-directed 

 legislative measures to preserve the remaining commons from 

 enclosure may, in England at least, put off the evil day in 

 which there shall be no more any Goldfinches to gladden the 

 eyes and ears of the rambler,* and, seconded by judicious 

 restrictions on the season when these birds should be caught, 

 might ensure to future generations sights and sounds other- 



The " acclimatizers " wlio have introduced the bane of thistles and ragworts 

 VOL. II. K 



