Goldfinch. 203 



I conclude my account of the Goldfinch with the following 

 observation from the pen of the Rev. G. Marsh, and which I 

 believe is perfectly sound, while the names of Mr. Marsh and Mr. 

 Dyson are sufficient proof that their observation is accurate and 

 not the result of any hastily formed opinion or conjecture. Mr. 

 Marsh writes thus : 'In the spring of 1851 Rev. F. Dyson first 

 told me that there was a bird which birdcatchers call the " Chevil " 

 Goldfinch, quite different from the common Goldfinch, and the 

 only bird that will breed with the common Canary. On the 1st 

 of June I went with him to see one of these birds paired with 

 a canary ; it was certainly different from the common bird, 

 the red feathers not continuing under the chin ; it was a very 

 fine bird, and the birdcatcher (one Fisher, of Cricklade) told 

 me they were always the leading birds of the flock/ This 

 opinion, which I printed in 1860, has been amply corroborated 

 by the Rev. A. P. Morres, who said there is no doubt at all 

 about there being two distinct species of these birds recognised 

 by the birdcatchers of his district, one of whom said, ' We 

 call the bigger sort " three-pound-tenners" amongst ourselves, 

 and they are quite different from the others. You can distin- 

 guish them readily by the largeness of the white spot on the end 

 of the quill-feathers of the wing, and also by their white throat, 

 and the bigger black crescent, which comes much further round 

 the side of the face, and they are of a more slender shape alto- 

 gether than the others. They are worth more because they will 

 breed more readily with the canary than the smaller kind, though 

 the latter will do so sometimes.' Another bird-fancier said that 

 he knew the two birds well, and that they called the bigger sort 

 'the Chevil' or ' Chevril.'* Professor Newton, however, main- 

 tains that it is not a distinct species, but only a variety,t and 

 Montagu referred to it in his day as a variety, under the name of 

 ' Cheverel,' but it is hard to say where a variety ends and a species 

 begins. 



* Wiltshire Archceological and Natural History Magazine, vol. xviii., 

 pp. 291, 292. 



f Fourth edition of Yarrell ; s 'British Birds,' vol. ii., p. 124. 



