370 GOLDFINCH 
habitual representative of the genus, and it occurs from thence to 
the Rocky Mountains. In breeding-habits it differs from the 
commoner species, not placing its eggs in tree-holes; but how far 
this difference is voluntary may be doubted, for in the countries it 
frequents trees are wanting. It is a larger and stouter bird, and 
in the male the white cheek-patches take a more crescentic form, 
while the head is glossed with purple rather than green, and the 
white scapulars are not elongated. The New World also possesses a 
third and still more beautiful species of the genus in. .C. albeola, 
known in books as the Buffle-headed Duck, and to Aswertcan fowlers 
as the “Spirit-Duck” and “ Butter-ball”—the former name being 
applied from its rapidity in diving, and the latter from its exceed- 
ing fatness in autumn. This is of small size, but the lustre of the 
feathers in the male is brilliant, and exhibits a deep plum- 
coloured gloss on the head. It breeds in trees, and is supposed to 
have occurred more than once in britain. 
GOLDFINCH (German Goldjink+) the Fringilla carduelis of Lin- 
nus and the Carduelis elegans of later authors, an extremely well- 
known bird found over the greater parts of Europe and North Africa, 
and eastwards to Persia and Turkestan. Its gay plumage is matched 
by its sprightly nature ; and together they make it one of the most 
favourite cage-birds among all classes. As a songster it is indeed 
surpassed by many other species, but its docility and ready attach- 
ment to its master or mistress make up for any defect in its vocal 
powers. In some parts of England the trade in Goldfinches is very 
considerable. In 1860 Mr. Hussey reported (Zool.: p. 7144) the 
average annual captures near Worthing to exceed 11,000 dozens— 
nearly all being cock-birds; and a witness before a committee of 
the House of Commons in 1873 stated that, when a boy, he could 
take forty dozens in a morning near Brighton. In these districts 
and others the number has of late years become much reduced, 
owing doubtless in part to the fatal practice of catching the birds 
just before or during the breeding season; but perhaps the 
strongest cause of their growing scarcity throughout the kingdom 
has been the constant breaking-up of waste lands, and the extirpation 
of weeds (particularly of the Order Compositz) essential to the im- 
proved system of agriculture; for in many parts of Scotland, East ~ 
Lothian for instance, where Goldfinches were once more plentiful 
than Sparrows, they are now only rare stragglers, and yet there they 
have not been thinned by netting. Though Goldfinches may 
occasionally be observed in the coldest weather, incomparably the 
largest number leave Britain in autumn, returning in spring, and 
resorting to our gardens and orchards to breed, when the lively 
1 The more common German name, however, is Distelfink (Thistle-Finch) or 
Stieglitz. 
