THE GOLDFINCH’S NEST. 
victuals during the first few weeks of their existence. It is the 
birds first hatched that are the finest, as they monopolize the 
greater part of the food brought by the parent birds to their 
j more recent fledglings, and these latter, poor little creatures, 
feed or go hungry according to the appetites of their elder 
brothers and sisters. Scientific writers enumerate no end 
of varieties of the goldfinch, including the black finch, the 
yellow-breasted, the white-headed, the black -headed, &c. &c., 
but the ordinary bird-dealer knows of only three sorts, viz. : 
the “ speckled,” which has a white spot under the throat ; the 
bastard cheveral,” which has a streak of white half way down 
the breast; and the “ cheveral,” on whose breast the white streak 
extends to the belly. This last is a very fashionable bird, and 
vast sums will be asked for him : however, as the white streak 
adds little to his beauty, and nothing at all to his song, I leave 
it to you if he be worth a penny more than his speckled 
i brother. 
HEAD OF MALE GOLDFINCH. HEAD OF HEN GOLDFINCH. 
The nest of the goldfinch is a wonderfully pretty structure, 
beautifully round and compact, and composed of such materials 
as the neighbourhood affords. However, let the outer coat of 
the nest be what it may, you will certainly find it well lined 
with thistle-down, or some such warm material. If you go 
nesting for goldfinches, the latter end of April will be the time. 
It is almost useless to search trees in the vicinity of orchards, 
as fruit trees are their favourite resort, and while they can find 
these, they will seldom build elsewhere. If, however, you are 
so fortunate as to have access to an orchard, your nestlings 
are almost as good as captured. 
It' is one thing, however, to discover a goldfinch’s nest, and 
quite another to get at it. In all probability you will spy it at 
the very top of the tree, and at the extreme end of a slender 
k 2 131 
