252 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



No home like that home, 

 Where two bosoms impart 



Their finest of sympathies 

 Warm from the heart ; 



Where friendship with love 



Is perpetual guest ; 

 And affection's smooth pillow 



A soft heaving breast. ( 44 ) 



( 44 ) Order, Passeres, (Linn.) Finch, Goldfinch, Chaf- 

 finch, Brambling, Redpolf, &c. 



The genus Fringilla, (Linn.) or Finch, to which the 

 Goldfinch, Fringilla Carduelis, belongs, consists of about one 

 hundred and fifty species, distributed over the globe, several of 

 which are found in our own country j they are distinguished by 

 a conic bill ; tongue truncated; toes three forwards, one back- 

 ward. The following are the chief: 



The Carduelis, Goldfinch, Thistle-Finch, or Jack nicker, is 

 too well known to need description. Nine varieties ; inha- 

 biting Europe, Asia, Africa, and this country. Sings exqui- 

 sitely, and is very docile j frequents gardens and orchards, and 

 feeds on various seeds ; in the winter assembles together in 

 numbers, feeding at such times on thistle seeds, hence its 

 specific name carduelis ; builds in apple, pear, elm, and some 

 evergreen trees; nest very neat, (see the Introduction.) Eggs 

 five, white with brown spots. It regularly breeds with the 

 canary-bird, the produce, a mule, termed Canary-Goldfinch. 

 The young of the goldfinch before the crimson on the head ap- 

 pears, is called by the bird-catchers grey-pate. 



Of the Calebs, Chaffinch, Beech-finch, Horse-finch, Pied- 

 finch, Pink, or Twink, there are six varieties, the principal 

 of which is distinguished by the peculiar sound of chink, chink, 



