THE GOLDFINCH 273 



has seen " a small party of these birds eagerly devouring 

 the seeds of the large sow-thistle." A little fruit more 

 or less in a season, in one's own domain, is a small 

 matter in comparison with the vast amount of noxious 

 weeds destroyed on our fields. 



The Bullfinch is an ornament in a garden. Crown, 

 wings, and tail are shining black, and the same colour 

 surrounds the bill ; mantle a beautiful ashen-grey, rump 

 and under tail cover snow white, breast and under-parts 

 a fine red. In the female the under-part is ashen-grey. 

 Bill short but very thick, at the end curved and hooked. 

 The clutch is composed of five green eggs with purple 

 and grey speckles. It nests in the fir woods of the 

 mountains, at a height of about six yards; the nest is 

 made of thin twigs and is lined with hair. 



The Goldfinch (Carduelis elegans) is so well known in 

 Great Britain that it requires little description. Un- 

 happily for the " Proud Tailor," as he is called in the 

 Midlands, he has always been a favourite cage-bird, and 

 on the South Downs Goldfinches have been captured in 

 thousands at the times of migration, to be miserably 

 caged in dozens for the bird dealers. 



They are birds which found their food on the waste 

 lands where large thistles used to grow, and with the 

 improvement of these waste lands the thistles have gone, 

 and the Goldfinches with them. Increased Bird Protec- 

 tion is, however, causing more .Goldfinches to breed 

 amongst us, which is a good thing for agriculture, this 

 bird's food consisting, as it does, of the seeds of the 

 thistle, knap-weed, groundsel, dock, and other plants. 

 The Goldfinch is considered to be one of the most useful 



