GOLDFINCH. 567 



acted as a cannoneer, with a cap on its head, a firelock on 

 its shoulder, and a match in its claw, and discharged a 

 small cannon. The same bird also acted as if it had been 

 wounded. It was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it 

 were, to the hospital ; after which it flew away before the 

 company. The seventh turned a kind of windmill ; and 

 the last bird stood in the midst of some fireworks which 

 were discharged all round it, and this without exhibiting 

 the least symptom of fear. 



In spring, and the early part of summer, the Goldfinch 

 frequents gardens and orchards. Hurdis, in his Village 

 Curate, page 44, says: 



" I love to hear the Goldfinch twit and twit, 

 And see him pick the groundsel's feathered seeds ; 

 And then in bower of apple blossom perched, 

 Trim his gay suit, and pay us with a song." 



The Goldfinch builds a very neat nest, which is some- 

 times fixed in an apple or pear tree ; occasionally in a 

 hedge, or thick bush in a small copse, or an evergreen in 

 a plantation. A nest before me is formed on the out- 

 side with fine twigs of fir, green grass bents, fine roots, 

 some wool, and several pieces of white worsted, curiously 

 interwoven together ; lined with willow down, feathers, and 

 numerous long hairs. It has been well observed, " that 

 birds will in general take the materials for building which 

 they can most easily procure." Bolton, in the preface to 

 his Harmonia Ruralis, says, " I observed a pair of Gold- 

 finches beginning to make their nest in my garden, on the 

 10th of May, 1792: they had formed the groundwork with 

 moss, grass, &c., as usual; but on my scattering small 

 parcels of wool in different parts of the garden, they in 

 a great measure left off the use of their own stuff, and 

 employed the wool. Afterwards I gave them cotton, on 

 which they rejected the wool, and proceeded with the 



