goldfinch. 
CARDUELIS ELEGANS. 
\ the 7“ g °“ s we d ~ * - nu.be, dttring 
England, where formerly they were ^“ hTndret " f* ^ «-»«* of 
needed to supply the demand, could only have caused this fellin- off !s 7 “ d th ® thousands 
to or Tl r C ° mpara * 1Vely SCarCe - “P art ‘° the P^ctioe of catching the birds prior 
Such c!tr ^‘OS^O". and not a hundred may be seen even at the most favourable time of year." 
also at HaL^ ^hT “r^ 16 *° S °“ 6 rCadcrs> iut - vears a S° when a school-boy at Brighton, and 
nrofessioml t \ ° f ' SCGn ’ " ^ m C ° mpan ^ with somc of the most skilful and best equipped 
LfZe^tand Wtl 00 " 8 7 “T," *” ° CCaSi ° nS ' hu “ drcds stra ^ing in the nets after a pull, and can 
, , . ,G nUmberS Stated to have been taken were reached. I believe that, in those days, these 
ground^ ’^betwee C ° UD ^ ry 77*^ ^ or ^hingand Brighton in Sussex and the unreclaimed land (termed “allotment 
found f r hi aUd t™ md .os from Harrow, in the direetion of Pinner, were about the best that eould be 
round lor this species in Great Britain. 
One of the Brighton bird-catchers informed me lately that his best take at one pull had been eleven dozen, 
and these were captured about five-and -twenty years ago. During the past season he stated he had been out a 
times, but no flight had taken place, and his catches had never reached a dozen in a morning. 
The grass-fields adjoining the wide-spreading shingle-banks at Shoreham, where mv punt and boat-houses 
are built, were formerly a favourite spot for the netting fraternity, and a few years back a man from London 
w o was well up to his business and provided with an immense stock of call-birds came down regularly every 
season, and set within a hundred and fifty yards of my station, where I could obtain an excellent view of his 
proceedings. Although Linnets were plentiful, he met with no great success with the Goldfinches ; if I remember 
right, a single bird was his total catch during one season. I have been in the habit of fishing and shooting on 
this part of the coast for many years, and have to cross the fields that the Goldfinches formerly passed oven- at 
flight-time, but no flocks of these birds have attracted my attention during the autumn, though constantly on 
the look-out ; two or three small parties only, of half a dozen or so, have been observed along the adjoining 
hedge-rows that border the field during the whole time. 
M hile at home at Catsfield, near Battle in Sussex, for the Christmas holidays during the winters of 1853 
and the two following years, I generally amused myself by working a small bird-net every day when the 
