GOLDFINCH. 93 



Goldfinclies seem to have always kept up their numbers, 

 as for instance about Standlake, where they were noticed as 

 ' quite common ' by Mr. Warner. The birds which have 

 wintered in the south return early in March, and in September 

 and October flights of large light-coloured birds haunt the 

 thistle-grown pastures. At the latter season great numbers 

 are taken by the professional bird-catchers. In the autumn 

 of 1882, no less than twenty-six dozen were netted by three 

 Oxford bird-catchers (H. A. Macpherson, MS.), and in 1884 

 one Banbury man alone took one hundred and sixty Gold- 

 finches in September and October ; these were almost all of 

 the large race, which this man states he never takes in winter. 

 Those that remain with us during the latter season are 

 generally seen singly, or two or three together, but occasion- 

 ally in small flocks even in severe frost. About a score were 

 seen on the hills above Chinnor on the 30th January, 1880 

 (B. D^O. Aplin in lit,), and I have seen a ' chaiTu ' of five-and- 

 twenty in December, 1882. The Rev. H. A. Macpherson also 

 has recorded a charm of fifteen seen by him dm-ing a pro- 

 tracted frost {Zoologist, 1883, p. '^'>^l). These winter birds 

 are invariably of the small dusky race. 



The Goldfinch is subject to considerable variation in 

 plumage, certain phases of which are well known. The Rev, 

 H. A. Macpherson mentions in the Zoologist an old bird in black 

 plumage taken by a Hinksey bird-catcher, also the capture in 

 September, 1877, of one with the breast tinged with golden 

 yellow (1883, p. '>,'>,']). Mr. Macpherson remarks in the same 

 note that, as far as his observations went, the crimson band 

 across the occiput occurs only in cage-moulted males, but 

 I shot a male exhibiting traces of this peculiarity at Great 

 Bourton in September, 1885. I have not known the true 

 ' cheverel •* to occur in Oxon in a wild state, but some years 

 ago I purchased of Mr. W. Wyatt, of Banbury, a good 

 example of the ' pea-throat ' or ' bastard cheverel.^ 



