276 COMMON GOLDFINCH. 



and without great difficulty may be taught to 

 draw up its food and water in small buckets, and 

 some have been trained to go through the little 

 farce of the deserter, the torment of dogs and 

 canaries, and of those animals or birds whose 

 memories and fears have been wrought on to 

 furnish amusement or a livelihood for man. They 

 are also kept to obtain a cross with the canary, 

 with which they readily breed, and whose progeny 

 is thought to combine advantages by a mixture 

 of both their songs. 



In its range, the Goldfinch extends over the 

 greater portion of Europe, becoming more rare 

 towards the north ; we have it also recorded as 

 occurring at Smyrna and Trebizond. In Alpine 

 India, we find it represented by a species some- 

 what similarly marked, but the European bird 

 has not yet been received from that region, Japan, 

 or any part of Asia. 



In the male the forehead, temples, chin, 

 and upper parts of the throat, are bright 

 crimson, (the arterial blood-red of Syme ;) the 

 space between the eye and the gape, the occiput, 

 and part of the nape, running round the sides of 

 the neck in the form of a collar, are deep glossy 

 black ; the back and scapulars are yellowish 

 brown, paler where the colour joins the black 

 upon the nape, and on the rump and upper tail 

 Averts shading into nearly pure white; the 

 cheeks, throat, and centre of the belly are nearly 

 pure white ; the breast and flanks yellowish 

 brown, of a clearer tint than that of the back ; 



