222 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



CARDUELIS ELEGANS, Stephens. 

 GOLDFINCH. 



This beautiful species is by no means uncommon 

 throughout the year, and though a large proportion of 

 our native birds apparently leave us for a time in the 

 depth of winter, some few still remain, and, like the 

 pied wagtails before referred to, shift for themselves 

 during the sharpest weather. The migratory habits of 

 the Goldfinch are well known to our bird-catchers, 

 although the flights that visit us in spring or autumn, 

 are small indeed in comparison with those observed in 

 more southern counties.* From my own observation 

 of the birds netted in this neighbourhood, by far the 

 larger number are procured in the autumn, and a more 

 vivid colouring, as in many other continental visitants, 

 marks the plumage of adult birds. Messrs. Gurney 



* Mr. Knox, in his "Ornithological Rambles," gives a most 

 interesting account of the migration of the goldfinch, as observed 

 on the Sussex coast both in spring and autumn, where, at either 

 season, its arrival is anxiously watched for by the resident bird- 

 catchers. Mr. Newman, in a recent paper on the " Migration of 

 birds in Great Britain" (" Field," April 22nd, 1865), has also given 

 the following remarkable statistics with reference to the same 

 species : " Mr. Robert Gray, of Worthing, asserts that the bird- 

 catchers net, within a walk of "Worthing, four or five hundred 

 dozen of goldfinches every October. The cocks fetch four or five 

 or sometimes six shillings a dozen, the hens about two shillings. 

 During one particular year, as many as eight hundred dozen were 

 taken." The Rev. Arthur Hussey has also ascertained by careful 

 enquiry, in the same locality, that "none are taken in January, 

 February, March, June, and July, about fourteen dozen of the 

 immigrants in April and May, the astounding number of seven 

 hundred and fifty dozen of the emigrants in October, and three 

 hundred dozen in the beginning of November." 



