GOLDFINCH. 131 



and even neater. For its sprightly manners, its cheerful 

 notesj and its extreme docility, it is greatly prized as a cage- 

 bird, and is frequently supplied with a small bucket and 

 chain, with which it is taught to draw up its water^ or seed. 

 In winter it receives considerable accessions, and though not 

 in such large numbers as formerly, it is frequently captured 

 in clap-nets, coming freely to the call- birds. Mr. Booth 

 states that one Brighton bird-catcher informed him that 

 about twenty-five years before the publication of his ' Kough 

 Notes,' he had, at one pull of his net, taken eleven dozen. 

 Mr. Hussey, in 1860 (Zoologist, p. 7144), put the annual 

 captures of this species near Worthing at about 1154 dozen, 

 nearly all cocks ; and Mr. Booth further states that even 

 larger numbers used to be yearly taken within ten miles of 

 Brighton, adding that in that neighbourhood it had now be- 

 come comparatively scarce, owing in part to the fatal prac- 

 tice of catching the birds prior to, or during the breeding 

 season ; so that not a hundred may now be seen, even at the 

 most favourable time of the year. Knowing this, no one 

 can be surprised at the diminution of the species. The young 

 are known to the bird-catchers as Greypates. 



There is also a variety called the Cheveril, or the Chevil, 

 which is distinguished by being somewhat larger than the 

 ordinary form, by having the chin entirely white, and the 

 white on the sides of the head extending upwards in a well- 

 defined line across the occiput; the sides of the breast, 

 which are usually brown, being also white. This form is 

 uncommon and valuable, because it is believed to have a 

 sweeter song, and to pair more freely with the Canary-bird. 



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