228 



THE GOLDFINCH. 



sways himself rapidly from side to side with his dazzling golden wings 

 slightly expanded, is considered by Dr. Darwin a valuable piece of 

 evidence as bearing on natural selection. — (Cf. Darwin, " Descent of 

 Man," Vol. II.) 



I must confess that the motion in question has always appeared to 

 my mind fco be simply due to sexual excitement, though it may serve 

 to rouse the love of the female. Song is perhaps as important a factor 

 as colour. A female goldfinch, introduced to a couple of males this 

 summer, paired in a few days with the smallest and most ill-favoured; 

 the other goldfinch was not indeed in full song, but was a magnificent 

 fellow in colour and size, and, moreover, was unencumbered ; whereas 

 his shameless little rival deserted a ben bulllineh (which he had fed 

 steadily for several months), that be might woo the new-comer of his 

 own race. The bond of affection, thus severed, had been joined by 

 the two birds being confined together for several months. A female 

 siskin, which died in April last, had paired with another goldfinch, 

 which fed her also regularly. 



The inter-breeding of goldfinch and bullfinch, or greenfinch, or linnet 

 and bullfinch is now well-known to be possible in confinement. A fine 

 hybrid between the two first was reared in 1880 by Mr. Thomas 

 Lester, of Clifton Hampden, where I have repeatedly seen it, as well 

 as its parents. 



To Macgillivray's two cases of the male greenfinch pairing with the 

 female goldfinch in a state of freedom, may be added that of a hybrid 

 taken from a nest of goldfinches, in close proximity to that of a green- 

 finch, by Travis, the obliging keeper of the Western Aviary, Regent's 

 Park. 



A. hybrid between a goldfinch and greenfinch, formerly in my 

 possession, was bred, I have reason to believe, in the canary-room 

 of a fancier in the South of England. He combined the most pug- 

 nacious of temperaments with great beauty of plumage ; the green- 

 finch tints predominated. 



Goldfinches ordinarily breed in orchards, though evergreens and 

 even high quick hedges, as well as elms and oaks, are in turn selected. 

 Richard Jefferies has described generation after generation succeeding 

 to the same " bushy-headed codlings," with his usual felicity.— Cf. " Wild 

 Life in a Southern Country," page 170. 



The development of the colour sense in the goldfinch was well 

 described by a writer in "Nature" of May 31st, 1877, who watched 

 a pair of goldfinches, from an upperwindow, building on the extremit] 

 of a sycamore tree. To match the tree, the finches took its own 

 blossoms, to match the sky overhead they chose forget-me-nots. As a 

 though the flowers of course faded, the tints of tree and nest 

 were so well matched, that from below nothing of the nest was visible 

 beyond a Blight apparent thickening of the leaves. This term, a pair 

 of goldfinches built in some furze in a tiny Oxford bird-room, but the 

 eggs, alter fourteen days' incubation, were still imh&tched. They are 



