44


We do not for a moment agree with Mr. Emerson’s opinion that

the Goldfinch is “ ill-shapen ” and “bad-tempered,” nor do we

pledge ourselves to any of his other notions.


“The Goldfinch or ‘draw-water’ is not a bird of graceful build nor

sweet song, yet is he dear to the Philistine who loves variegated colours,

because he satisfies a rude barbaric taste for colour : for he is a “ gay bird,”

and he is great at parlour tricks, like his lover : for cannot he draw his water

and seed to his cage by a simple mechanical contrivance ? And so he

delights the populace, as do the performing elephant and the contortionist.


“And of our cage-birds he seems most ill at ease, and is perpetually

rushing from one side of the cage to the other, and if he be given half a

chance he will escape, for he is a quick and swift flyer, and returns to the

marsh, where in sooth he is seen at his best; for at a distance, flitting

restlessly with quick jumps from thistle to gorse - bush in the bright

sunshine, he delights the eye, for ’tis an ever-shifting ball of colour flitting

over the sere marsh-crops ; but when you come to regard him in a cage,

you find him ill-shapen, restless, bad-tempered, an indifferent musician, a

mountebank and imitator, and a lover of rude noises, for he sings never

so sweetly as when a millman’s engine is rattling, pumping forth the marsh

water into the rivers.


“However, he has taste when building his nursery, for he generally

chooses a fruit - tree, preferably an apple, covered with madder - tinged

blossom ; for though he pairs very early in the spring, he does not begin to

build till the middle of May. In some mossy crook he builds his neat

small cradle of moss, and he is a good husband, taking his turn at sitting

and feeding the young with flies and maggots.


“ Though shy birds, if robbed of their young they are very bold; and

I have known them go regularly into a cottage to feed the captive young in

a cage ; the cage was moved by degrees from the nesting-tree to the cottage

table — an interval of a da)' elapsing between each stage. On the other

hand, if captured when old, they will often sulk to death, or “ die of

sulking,” as the fenmen say.


“There is a superstition amongst cottagers, that if the young

birds die, the old birds have poisoned them; but the mystery is generally

to be explained by looking into the seed-dish, when pure hemp will be

found—a seed fatal to young birds.


“In autumn they collect in small flocks, and may be seen beating the

thistly marshes, or flashing over the snow in mid-winter, when they look at

their best, and indeed are then very tame and can almost be taken by the

hand.


“But they are becoming rare in the Broad district, and though they

may be seen on the marshlands and in the elms and cars by the river-side,

it is not an everyday picture.


“The sentimentalist, whose heart is often better than his head, often

raises an outcry against caging birds; but if the young bird is taken from

its nest before it recognises its parents, there is no cruelty in the matter,

for they never know the doubtful sweets and dangers of bird liberty, and

will at times, if they escape, return of their own free will to their “ prison.”

Should you wish to take young birds for the cage, you must watch your

brood every day; and so long as these formless creatures upon your

appearance stretch forth their ugly necks and open their mouths for food



