GOLDFINCH. 119 



in n morning. In that neighbourhood, however, it has now 

 become comparatively scarce owing, in part, to the fatal 

 practice of catching the birds prior to or during the breed- 

 ing-season, and not an hundred may be seen even at the 

 most favourable time of year.* 



In spring, and early summer, the Goldfinch frequents 

 gardens and orchards. Hurdis wrote: 



" I love to see the little goldfinch pluck 

 The groundsil's feather'd seed, and twit and twit; 

 And then in bow'r of apple blossoms perch'd, 

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

 I would not hold him pris'ner for the world. " 



Village Curate (1788), p. 44. 



The Goldfinch builds a very neat nest, generally in an 

 apple- or pear-tree, but very frequently near the end of a leafy 

 bough of a horse-chestnut or sycamore ; and more seldom in 

 a hedge, a thick bush in a copse, or an evergreen in a shrub- 

 bery. A nest before me is formed on the outside with fine 

 twigs of fir, green bents, fine roots, wool, and pieces of white 

 worsted, interwoven together; and is lined with willow-down, 

 feathers and numerous long hairs. f 



The eggs are four or five in number, of a french white, 

 with a few spots and lines of pale purple and dark reddish- 

 brown, but occasionally boldly and much more marked or 

 partly suffused with brownish-purple ; they measure from 

 72 to *6 by from -53 to -47 in. 



* Report from the Select Committee on Wild Birds Protection &c. Ordered 

 by the House of Commons to be printed, 23 July 1873, pp. 102-108. 



t It has been well observed that " birds will in general take the materials for 

 building which they can most easily procure. " Bolton says (Harmonia Ruralis, 

 pref. p. vi.): -"On the tenth of May, A.D. 1762, I observed a pair of goldfinches 

 beginning to make their nest in my garden ; 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 ; afterward, I gave them cotton, on which they rejected 

 the wool, and proceeded with the cotton ; the third day I supplied them with fine 

 down, on which they forsook both the other, and finished their work with this 

 last article. The nest, when completed, was somewhat larger than is usually 

 made by this bird, but retained the pretty roundness of figure, and neatness of 

 workmanship, which is proper to the goldfinch. The nest was completed in the 

 space of three days, and remained unoccupied for the space of four days, the first 

 egg not being laid till the seventh day from the beginning of the work. ' 



