408 THE GOLDFINCH. 



To busk and paint the crimson rose, 

 'Mang men — vvae's heart !— we aften find 

 The brawest drest want peace o' mind, 

 While he that gangs wi' ragged coat 

 Is weil con ten tit wi' his lot. 

 When wand, wi' glewy birdlime set, 

 To steal far aff your dautit mate, 

 Blyth wad ye cheange your cleefchin gay 

 In lieu o' lavrock's sober grey. 

 In vain through woods you sair may ban 

 Th' envious treachery o' man, 

 That, wi' your gowden glister ta'en, 

 Still haunts you on the Simmer's plain, 

 And traps you 'mang the sudden fa's 

 O' Winter's dreary dreepin' snaws." 



In another poem he says of his favourite bird — 



" 'Twas e'ening when the speckled gowdspink sang, 

 Whan new-fa'n dew in blobs o' crystal hang." 



Although I have got its nest here it is not common about St 

 Andrews. On May 25th, 1858, I got one with five eggs on a 

 high plane tree in an orchard near the Kinness Burn, which I 

 shall describe, as I had trouble reaching it. It was 33 feet up, 

 resting on a horizontal branch seven feet out from the trunk. I 

 got a 30-feet ladder, which, being too short, I set against a 

 lower branch, but as the nest was farther out I could not reach 

 it, so had to cut the under side of the higher branch to let it 

 bend down. In drawing it clown, four of the eggs fell out and 

 broke, so it was no use leaving the nest with one egg (being 

 early in the season the birds would soon have more), and it 

 ^ave me an opportunity to describe the nest. It was 4 inches 

 diameter outside, and 2f by 1 J deep inside, composed of moss 

 and fine roots, chiefly boxwood, lined with hair, thistledown, 

 thread, bits of carpet pile, tow, and feathers — some of the 

 thread 19 and some of the hairs 18 inches long. On taking it 

 to pieces I found it all interwoven with hair, feathers, thistle 

 and dandelion down, bits of carpet, threads, and fine grass, with 

 two bunches of rabbit fur interlaced with moss — one black 

 thread 38 inches long. The hair was of all kinds, interwoven 

 to bind it together. Except the outer layer of moss and roots, 

 it is impossible to describe the various kind of hairs, down, 

 thread, &c. It was one of the most laborious made nests I ever 

 inspected. It was larger than a chaffinch's, and not unlike a 

 linnet's ; but when on apple or pear trees they are stuck over 

 with lichens — like a chaffinch's, placed generally on a flexible 

 branch — is literally a cradle, the young being rocked by the 

 wind nearly as much as they are afterwards on the tall and 



