THE GOLDFINCH. 131 



THE GOLDFINCH {Canhtrlis denon.^].* 



BY HUGH A. MACPHERSON, B.A. 



I propose to read to you to-day a brief resume of the notes which I 

 have collected on the Goldfinch since the reading of my first paper 

 (published in " Midland Naturalist," Vol. IV., p. 225 et seq.) 



When I passed through Paris, June 2ud, 1881, I found the bird 

 shops well supplied with fine, bright, matui'e males of this species. 

 About 6 a.m. on June 24th, in the neighbourhood of Clermont, two 

 immature birds passed me on the wing. Shortly afterwards I crept 

 within a yard or two of two old males, feeding hungrily on the seeds 

 of a ragged, yellow daisy. In the neighbourhood of Mont Dore, in 

 Auvergue, to which we proceeded, goldfinches were numerous. They 

 did not appear to breed in the wilder parts of the valley, but only in 

 the immediate vicinity of the village, and on level ground. All requests 

 for the patois names of small birds were met with the remark, 

 " chardouueret," regardless of identity. 



Even during the severest noonday heat the male finches sang 

 vigorously to their sitting mates. On July 9th a little greypate strayed 

 from a nest situated in one of the ash trees of our hotel garden. 

 Glancing at the shoulders, I recognised it as a female, and recom- 

 mended that it should be returned to its parents. As the nestlings of 

 this family grew strong, they constantly fluttered about our garden and 

 the adjoining park. Between July 1.3th and 20th I daily enjoyed the 

 sight of two other broods in course of learning to fly. It was on July 

 22nd that we came upon a very large body of goldfinches, engaged in 

 feeding on the seeds of some large thistles on the edge of a cornfield. 

 This occurred at a village where our horses baited, in the wild country 

 between Mont Dore and Clermont. As I followed the goldfinches up 

 and down, they grew timid, and some left the thistles ; I counted 

 between twenty and thirty, old and young, sitting in one long row on 

 the telegraph wire above the road. Between this date and August 10th 

 many young broods of goldfinches were to be seen on the south side of 

 the town of Geneva. A tailor showed me a number of nestlings which 

 he had reared by hand. At Interlaken, on August 19th, I saw four (or 

 five) tiny chicks, straining eagerly out of their nest, in anxiety to secure 

 the lion's share. An old bird fed them repeatedly as I stood below ; 

 though the branch, at the extremity of which the nest was situated, 

 might easily have been taken from any passing vehicle. The tree 

 selected was a walnut, close to the Hotel Kichardt. The only other 

 goldfinch which I saw at Interlaken (and they failed to ascend to 

 our quarters at Beatenberg) was an immature example, which flew 

 past me in Interlaken on August 21. I did not meet with any more 

 goldfinches until September I'd, when, during a heavy shower, I came 

 across two old birds and three young ones m a garden at Montreux. 



Read before the Oxfordshire Natural History Society, February 14, 1882. 



