276 
COMMON GOLDFINCH. 
and without great difficulty may be taught to 
draw up its food and water in small buckets, and 
some have been trained to go through the little 
farce of the deserter, — the torment of dogs and 
canaries, and of those animals or birds whose 
memories and fears have been wrought on to 
furnish amusement or a livelihood for man. They 
are also kept to obtain a cross with the canary, 
with which they readily breed, and whose progeny 
is thought to combine advantages by a mixture 
of both their songs. 
In its range, the Goldfinch extends over the 
greater portion of Europe, becoming more rare 
towards the north ; we have it also recorded as 
occurring at Smyrna and Trebizond. In Alpine 
India, we find it represented by a species some- 
what similarly marked, but the European bird 
has not yet been received from that region, Japan, 
or any part of Asia. 
In the male the forehead, temples, chin, 
and upper parts of the throat, are bright 
crimson, (the arterial blood-red of Syme ;) the 
space between the eye and the gape, the occiput, 
and part of the nape, running round the sides of 
the neck in the form of a collar, are deep glossy 
black i the back and scapulars are yellowish 
brown, paler where the colour joins the black 
upon the nape, and on the rump and upper tail 
coverts shading into nearly pure white ; the 
cheeks, throat, and centre of the belly are nearly 
pure white ; the breast and flanks yellowish 
brown, of a clearer tint than that of the back ; 
