THE GOLDFINCH 



some half-dozen nests came under my notice. That the 

 Goldfinch must have been very common near London 

 " once upon a time " seems proved by the fact recorded 

 by Mr. Sharpe that twelve dozen had been netted in a 

 single morning on the spot where Paddington Station 

 now stands ! The builder has done almost as much 

 as the bird-catcher in exterminating the Goldfinch in 

 London ; but the bird still persists in its visits during 

 winter, and the most likely places to meet with it are the 

 rough bits of dock- and thistle-grown land, the last relics 

 left of what was once open country. Like so many others 

 of its kind, this Finch is more or less gregarious and social 

 during winter, and it roams about a great deal in quest of 

 its food. This chiefly consists in summer of insects and 

 larvae, but at other times seeds of many kinds, especially 

 of noxious weeds, are the favourite fare. It is an active, 

 restless bird when feeding, and is incessantly twittering 

 to its companions as it flits from tree to tree or from one 

 tall weed to another. The call-note, by which the species 

 may be readily identified, is a very musical twee-et ; 

 whilst its song in the nesting season is a by no means 

 unmusical one, something like that of the Linnet. The 

 Goldfinch is a rather late breeder, the nesting season 

 commencing in May, and being prolonged into July in 

 instances where a second brood is reared. So far as 

 London is concerned I have found the favourite nesting- 

 sites of the Goldfinch to be close, low hedges in the vicinity 

 of orchards and gardens, but a universally favourite spot 

 is a fruit-tree of some kind. The cup-shaped nest, neatly 

 made and exquisitely rounded, is formed of moss, down, 

 roots, and dry grass stems, garnished with lichens and 

 bound together with spiders' webs, the whole lined with 

 feathers, vegetable down, and hair. The four or five eggs 

 are greyish or greenish white, spotted with reddish or 

 purplish brown and grey. The broods often remain in 

 company through the winter. 



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