THE FINCH FAMILY. 83 



But to return to our birds. The large thistles 

 that used to grow on the waste lands were the 

 favourite haunt of the goldfinch, who, as he hovered 

 and flitted about, looked more like some tropical 

 butterfly than a bird. The waste lands with their 

 thistles are gone, and so are the goldfinches that 

 fed on their downy seeds. A large portion of the 

 common land is gone too. The moneyed class, 

 who have bought up the copyholders by some ar- 

 rangement best known to themselves, secure parts 

 of the real common land to themselves by buying 

 up and throwing it into land that never belonged to 

 it. Of late years the commons have become little 

 more than tracts of ground given over to game-pre- 

 serving. Notice-boards warn people off the ground 

 that is legally their own in the most arbitrary way. 

 Nay, I have even known people summoned before 

 a magistrate for no other crime than that of using 

 what from time immemorial has been their right. 

 In many cases they have pleaded their own cause 

 and won it. I have heard them tell their grievances 

 with tears in their poor old eyes. 



" Yes," some of the old country folk will tell you, 

 " goldfinches is scarce now. They used to be about 



