A TAME GOLDFINCH 101 



draw up the bucket with its beak and foot, and 

 when able to draw up the entire thread, the wine- 

 glass was filled with water, and the bucket, falling 

 into it, filled itself. It was curious to watch the 

 bird drawing up the bucket. It took but a very 

 short time for it to become perfect if I r^itier^ib^n 

 rightly, about ten days or a fortnight fronv'nVsf to 

 last. I cannot remember having tried, & 'taMe 

 any goldfinches. I have no doubt, however, that 

 it would have been a very easy matter, inasmuch 

 as so many instances are recorded of the extra- 

 ordinary tameness of these birds. Repentance 

 comes with mature years, and I look back regret- 

 fully on the days when I aided and abetted a 

 professional bird - catcher, an individual whose 

 trade I would now most thankfully see abolished. 

 The late Mr. Rowell, one of the curators of the 

 Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and a well-known 

 naturalist, told me some few years ago of a 

 goldfinch kept by his son-in-law, residing near 

 London, which was allowed out of its cage 

 daily, and was in the habit of roaming about at 

 will throughout the day, but, summer and winter 

 alike, it always returned about four o'clock in 

 the afternoon to its cage. This had been going 

 on for several years at the time he told me 

 (1889), so it is hardly to be expected that the 

 bird is yet alive. 



Some few years ago goldfinches were becom- 

 ing scarce in England. It is satisfactory to 

 learn that their numbers have recently been 



