BIRDS 133 



Such an experience is now very rare. Unfortunately the local 

 bird-catchers are only too well acquainted with their feeding 

 grounds, and catch a large proportion of the young during the 

 first months of autumn. As I contributed lengthened articles 

 on the habits of the Goldfinch to the Field of 1887 and of 1890, 

 it may be sufficient for present purposes to describe a single colony 

 as seen at home. On the 18th of June [1891] I visited a large 

 walled kitchen-garden to look for Goldfinches. R. Raine told 

 me that on June 17 and 18 he had seen eleven young Gold- 

 finches flying in the gardens together, and flitting about the fir- 

 trees ; early birds, considering the lateness of the season. The 

 old birds were already busied with fresh nesting operations, or 

 at least one pair were, for they had a fresh nest in one of the 

 higher branches of a standard apple-tree, and flitted about as 

 though watching over its safety. It was built of moss and 

 fibres, but was not yet lined. There was another pair in the 

 garden, and these had pen-feathered young, partly naked, but 

 invested with a few flakes of white down on the upper parts, so 

 tiny and withal so brown that a novice would hardly have 

 guessed that the five chicks that were packed so tightly 

 together into their nest were Lilliputian Goldfinches. Their 

 nest, composed of moss and fine fibres, was difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from the leaves of the apple-tree. The parent birds 

 were absent when we examined their young, but they soon 

 returned, and for half-an-hour we had three pairs of old Gold- 

 finches flitting about close to us. One of the males sang from 

 the top of a stake supporting a raspberry cane, in a way that 

 reminded me of the southern lands, in which Goldfinches often 

 sing from vine stakes. The males on the present occasion sang in 

 snatches, swaying from side to side and repeating 'lippetty- 

 swippet ' many times. One bird began rather quaveringly ' wi, 

 wi — chiowit, chioweet, kiowitt,' while his little mate listened 

 approvingly. The couple which owned the unfledged young 

 presently flitted off to their apple-tree, and we soon heard the 

 male swearing in Goldfinch language as he alighted, probably 

 because he found a young one, which we had displaced, sprawl- 

 ing on the top of the rest of the family. The pair nearest to 

 us perched on the top of an apple-tree just opposite their 



