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THE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 49 
own misfortune. So utterly heedless, or careless do they seem to the 
approach of man, especially when feeding, that they may be easily 
snared with a horse-hair loop attached to the end of a fishing rod. I 
have in this way, out of sheer love for the sport, taken many, releasing 
them of course after having effected my captures. These captures, too, 
have been effected upon the same individual for a second and even a 
third time, without much apparent trepidation or care on the part -of 
the"ensnared. So prone is this bird to leave the nutty seeds of nature’s 
bounty in some favored spot, that when taken therefrom in the manner 
already noted, and released, instead of flying away, it will immediately 
return thereto. These facts I have noticed and experienced under very 
favorable conditions and with a tempting spread at hand. I do not 
assert, however, that this bird never evinces timidity. Itis when feeding 
in companies and upon the weeds that it may most easily be approached 
and captured without much caution on the part of the captor. Attempts 
have been made to cross this bird with the Canary pet, but I think with 
no very pronounced success, although Audubon says that it has, in 
certain instances, been done with very satisfactory results. It bears 
confinement well, especially so if in company of its own kind, and would, 
no doubt, make a very agreeable and pleasing cage-bird, were it not so 
common with us as to render such a measure if not very desirable, cer- 
tainly without profit to bird-fanciers. 
Nature occasionally exhibits one of her abnormal phases, in the 
albinism of this finch. While this disease, if it may so be called, is of 
rare occurrence in any of the birds, it seems to assert itself more 
frequently in some families than in others. The family of the Frzy- 
gullide, of which the species under consideration is a member, according 
to Mr. Ruthven Deane, who has devoted considerable attention to this 
