BIRDS. 213 
for this purpose in the back of the cage. The art with 
which this bird composes and builds its nest is really 
an object of admiration ; it is generally interwoven with 
moss, small twigs, horsehair, and other pliant materials ; 
the inside stuffed most carefully with fine down, and tufts 
of cotton-grass, or cannaeh. There the female deposits 
five or six eggs, which are whitish, marked at their upper 
end with purple dots. 
The Goldfinch weaves, with willow down inlaid 
And cannaeh tufts, his wonderful abode ; 
And oft suspended at the limber end 
Of plane-tree spray, among the broad-leaved shoots, 
The tiny hammock swings to every gale. 
Sometimes in closest thickets 'tis concealed ; 
Sometimes in hedge luxuriant, where the brier, 
The bramble and the plum-tree branch, 
Warp through the thorn, surmounted by the flowers 
Of climbing vetch, and honeysukle wild. GRAHAME. 
The following lines were written by Cowper on a Gold* 
finch starved to death in its cage. The Goldfinch speaks : 
Time was when I was free as air, 
The thistle's downy seed my fare, 
My drink the morning dew ; 
I perched at will on every spray, 
My form genteel, my plumage gay, 
My strains for ever new. 
But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain, 
And form genteel were all in vain, 
And of a transient date ; 
For caught and caged, and starved to death, 
In dying sighs my little breath 
Soon passed the wiry grate. 
Thanks, gentle author of my woes, 
Thanks for this most effectual close 
And cure of every ill. 
Never your cruelty repress ! 
For I, if you had shown me less, 
Had been your prisoner still. 
