148 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



however, says that it breeds in every county, and is only 

 rare where bird-catchers abound. 



The "twit, twit," of the Goldfinch is perhaps its 

 characteristic note, uttered on the wing as " twit, tuit-it," 

 or "tzitlit," sometimes "eaglet." It has a blithe and 

 pleasing sound ; but the song is, on the whole, much 

 inferior to that of many of our other song birds. On 

 one occasion, however, I heard two Goldfinches singing 

 most delightfully on the road leading to Llanfaes from 

 Beaumaris ; rising into the air, fetching a short compass, 

 and returning to the top of the trees again, they seemed 

 to sing in rivalry, and more sweetly than I had imagined 

 possible. 



Grahame, in his Birds of Scotland, has well described 

 our little favourite : 



" But mark the pretty bird himself, how light 

 And quiet his every motion, every note ! 

 How beautiful his plumes ; his red-tinged head ; 

 His breast of brown ! And see him stretch his wings ; 

 A fairy fan of golden spokes it seems, 

 Oft on a thistle's tuft he, whistling, sits 

 Light as the down ; then, 'midst a flight of downs, 

 He wings his way, piping his shrillest call." 



It is a pretty sight to see the Goldfinches at work in 

 a thistle field, climbing up the stems and hanging out of 

 them whilst they tear the thistles to pieces, and scatter 

 the down abroad as they seize upon the seeds. Their 

 food consists, however, of many other seeds besides 

 these, such as dandelion, hemp, groundsel, &c. ; to this 

 latter seed, however, the Linnet seems more attached 

 than the Goldfinch. Larvae and various insects are 

 mainly used in feeding their young. 



