THE GOLD-FINCH. 57 



The gold-finch is a small bird, but powerfully winged, and 

 very energetic in all its motions. Its length is about four 

 inches and a quarter, the extent of its wings between nine 

 and ten inches, and its weight about half an ounce. Its 

 flight is straightforward and smooth, without any undulations 

 or jerks, though, from its habit, it never flies at any great 

 elevation above the gronnd. The air of the bird is extremely 

 sprightly, more so, perhaps, than that of any of our little 

 birds, except the tits, and they have a sort of irritable 

 expression in them which the gold-finch has not : still it is 

 somewhat of a battling bird ; and, from the strength and 

 sharp-pointedness of its bill, the power of its wing, and the 

 admirable command that it has of itself on very slender 

 perches, few birds of its size can combat with it upon equal 

 terms. In the free air, however, the combats of birds are 

 few, unless among those of which the males fight at pairing 

 time. 



The plumage of the gold-finch is as fine in texture as it is 

 beautiful in colour : the flying feathers are equally remark- 

 able for the strength of their shafts, and the firmness of their 

 webs ; and the body feathers lie so very close, that when the 

 bird is fluttering about in all positions on a breezy day, 

 hardly a feather on it turns. 



It is a bird very generally distributed over Britain, where- 

 ever the nature of the soil is such as to afford it a supply of 

 food, in the early season, when the first broods are hatched. 



The plants upon the seeds of which gold-finches feed, and 

 feed with more assiduity than almost any other species, are 

 those which are the most noxious to the cultivator ; docks, 

 bistorts, sorrels, wild mustards, marigolds, mountain daisies, 

 chick-weeds, and especially the whole of that branch of the 

 composites that have winged seeds, and keep the air pow- 

 dered all the summer over with the excess of their produc- 

 tiveness, taking possession of every nook and corner of the 



