PERCHING BIRDS. 117 



months. Their habits were very shy, and they confined 

 themselves to the clumps of evergreens, principally holly 

 and box, where they appeared most frequently employed 

 on the ground underneath the shrubs. One of them, a 

 female, was seen on the 19th of March, when they ap- 

 pear to have left. During the same season another pair 

 were seen at Cuckney, but both were unfortunately 

 shot. 



A hawfinch in immature plumage was caught in 

 Thoresby Park in July, 1864 ; it had one of its wings 

 hurt, which prevented it from flying, and consequently 

 permitted a workman to take it up in his hand. He 

 carried it to his workshop in the woodyard, and there 

 offered it some green peas, which, to his surprise, it ate 

 greedily, taking them in the most fearless manner from 

 his fingers. In August following, when I saw it, its 

 wing had healed, and it took well to confinement, but 

 was very shy when strangers approached, fluttering to 

 the further side of its cage, though it manifested no alarm 

 at its captor, with whom it was quite familiar, and 

 would take food from his hand. 



The Goldfinch (F. cardudis) is at once one of the 

 most beautiful, as it is one of our commonest, song 

 birds. With us it is especially abundant on the forest, 

 where, on the open parts, numerous plants of the 

 common thistle grow, either singly or in patches ; here 

 I have often watched small parties of these pretty birds 

 clinging to the prickly heads and rifling them of their 

 downy seeds, incessantly uttering all the time their 

 musical call notes, as if they could not contain their en- 

 joyment. In our gardens it feeds on the silky seeds of 

 the groundsel : it delights, too, to build its nest in such 

 places; and a small clump of nut and plum trees in my 



