The Birds’ Calendar 
made from time to time to introduce and accli- 
mate in this country some of the noted species 
of Europe ; but unfortunately many, if not most, 
of such efforts prove fruitless. One day I met 
in the Park a gentleman whose philanthropy in 
this direction induces him yearly to have a hun- 
dred or more specimens sent over. He had 
imported a large number of chaffinches, one of 
the most popular birds in England, and turned 
them loose in the Park, and was vainly inquir- 
ing what had become of them. The starling 
has also been brought over, and I suspect that 
on two occasions I have seen it, as it answered 
the description as far as I could ascertain. 
This being the songless season, the question was 
left in doubt. 
The European goldfinch, which an ornitho- 
logical writer of England calls ‘‘ the most beauti- 
ful of all our [their] resident birds,’’ is one of the 
very few thus introduced that are breeding wild 
in this country, but so rarely found that they 
are not yet reckoned among our birds in books 
of ornithology. In some respects they are su- 
perior to our American goldfinches, not on the 
principle that an imported article is the best, 
but as being rather finer vocalists and with 
plumage a little richer. It is about five inches 
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