CARDUELIS. 



701 



have and the red bunting, which is the only British 

 Emberi-M with a black head and throat, has these 

 parts much more thickly edged in winter than any of 

 our other species. Again, the common robin is 

 never thus edged in winter, whilst the different red- 

 starts, which, physiologically, are very nearly allied 

 to it, but are all of them more or less covered with 

 black plumage, have the new feathers which they 

 acquire at the autumn moult, in some cases almost 

 wholly concealed by brownish tips. 



Cardnelis. 



To return, however, now to the true goldfinches, 

 which, unlike the siskins, have no additional covering 

 to their plumage in winter. What more we have to 

 say of them can be better introduced when giving an 

 account of the different species. Perhaps the most 

 beautiful of the whole genus is the common European 

 goldfinch (Carduelis elegant), o which it has been 

 well said, that elegance of form and beauty of plu- 

 mage, docility of disposition, and sweetness of song, 

 together with its natural hardiness of constitution, all 

 Combine to render it a general favourite, and it only 

 requires to be brought from a fiir country, and to be 

 sold at a high price, to be one of the most choice 

 favourites of amateurs, and to supersede almost every 

 other pet which luxury has imported from foreign 

 parts. Happy for it, however, if its abundance could 

 thus procure for it the neglect of bird-fanciers ; but 

 the fact is, it is a real matter of wonder how, amid 

 the ceaseless persecution from which it surfers, after 

 the many thousands which are annually captured by 

 the wholesale mode with clap-nets and call-birds, and 

 by various other contrivances and devices, that their 

 numbers are not very considerably on the decline, 

 that they should still be found, year after year, so 

 numerous, so common as they always are. The 

 species abounds in all parts of Europe, with the ex- 

 ception of mountainous districts, from the north of 

 Sweden to the Mediterranean ; and they would in 

 one year be quite common even in the immediate 

 vicinity and environs of our large cities, if the bird- 

 catchers would but suspend their operations for so 

 long a period. 



This beautiful finch is so well known, that a 

 description of it is hardly necessary. The bill is pale 

 flesh-colour, with a blackish tip, and continues to 

 increase somewhat in size for two or three years ; the 

 forehead and throat are bright crimson ; the checks, 

 ear-coverts, and lower parts of the neck, white ; and 

 the occiput and nape of the neck are glossy black. 

 The whole upper parts, with the sides of the breast, 

 are of a bright and deep yellowish brown ; a little 

 above which, on the breast, is a pale band across of 

 the same colour ; remainder of the under parts white, 



shading into brown. The wings black, with the 

 greater coverts, and basal half of the quills, bright 

 gamboge yellow ; the other half black, with a white 

 spot at the tips. Rump whitish ; six middle-tail 

 feathers black, with white-pointed tips ; the remainder 

 also black, with a large oval white spot, occupying 

 the middle of the inner webs. Legs and toes pale 

 brown. The female is very similar, but her colours 

 are not quite so brilliant ; there is no difference in 

 her markings from those of the male. In both, the 

 browns of the plumage become much paler towards 

 the approach of the breeding season, at which time 

 the crimson of the head changes to scarlet, and the 

 yellow on the wings increases in brilliancy ; these 

 changes, however, do not take place in captivity. 

 The young, in their nestling plumage, are called by 

 the bird-catchers grey-pates; they have then no 

 black and red upon the head, and the plumage all 

 over is streaked longitudinally, like that of a linnet ; 

 the wings and tail alone resembling the adult birds, 

 the feathers of which do not appear to be changed 

 until the second autumn. 



The goldfinch is very partial to orchards and gar- 

 dens, and shrubberies, especially if they arc ill kept, 

 as its principal food consists of the seeds of various 

 weeds which grow chiefly in such situations ; those 

 of the different thistles, the burdock and the dan- 

 delion, are its favourite food, as well as the oily 

 seeds of many of the cruciform plants. To obtain 

 the former, it may be commonly observed clinging in 

 various constrained and grotesque attitudes, often 

 with the head downward, whilst the pappus, or vege- 

 table down is made to fly in all directions ; the bird 

 reminding us, by its positions, of the titmouse tribe; 

 which it further resembles in the habit of holding 

 food with the foot, whilst pecking at it with the bill ; 

 a habit which is common to all the species of 

 Carduelis. The goldfinch also feeds much upon 

 various green leaves, more particularly on those of 

 chickweed and groundsel, and it will sometimes sit 

 and pick off the aphides from a plant with great 

 assiduity ; but it never feeds on insects in the manner 

 of the chaffinches and sparrows, and, in confinement, 

 it invariably rejects every thing of the kind. It is 

 also very partial to the unopened blossoms of furze, 

 and to the flowers of various other plants. 



Its song, which may be heard at almost every 

 season of the year, and as cheerily in the midst of a 

 November 'fog as in the brightest sunshine, is brisk 

 and lively, continuous, well kept up, and extremely 

 musical and cheerful; and its common chirrup and 

 call-notes are more pleasing than those of most other 

 birds. " They seldom," as is observed by a distin- 

 guished naturalist, " alight on the ground, unless to 

 procure water, in which they wash with great live- 

 liness and pleasure; after which they pick up some 

 particles of gravel and sand. So fond of each other's 

 company are they, that a party of them soaring on 

 the wing, will alter their course at the call of a single 

 one perched on a tree. This call is uttered with 

 much emphasis ; the bird prolongs its usual note with- 

 out much alteration ; and as the party approaches, 

 erects its body, and moves to the right and left, as if 

 turning on a pivot, apparently pleased at showing the 

 beauty of its plumage and elegance of its manners." 



The goldfinch's nest is a very beautiful structure, 

 generally situate in the fork of an old lichened fruit 

 tree, and occasionally in hawthorn hedges ; it is 

 mostly described to be lined with down of the dif- 

 ferent thistles, although thistles are very rarely even 



