THE GOLDFINCH. 
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to which is the 
best singer, the goldfinch or his rival the canary, it must be 
unanimonsly allowed that the former excels the latter in 
splendour of plumage, as, indeed, it does every other member of 
the finch family. 
This assertion is a bold one, and means more than at first 
glance appears. It must not be imagined that the finches seen 
in our English hedges, or at the shops of bird-fanciers, are the 
only ones in existence. There is the purple finch of America, 
the brown and the blue-bellied finch of the Brazils, the 
curiously-spangled finch found at the foot of the Snowy 
Mountains in India, and who (according to Campbell) are so 
sociable, that one vast nest four yards in circumference and 
a yard deep serves for an entire colony; the finch from the 
western coast of Africa — a terrible looking little bird, with 
a blood-red beak, naked eyelids, and flesh-coloured body ; 
