4 
them the next morning, and a fortnight later some sixty per cent, die 
miserably in little cages, each not much bigger than a brick. If they have 
been caught in the spring the mortality is greater. Latterly the supply of 
goldfinches has greatly diminished. The price has accordingly gone up ; 
and we import largely from Germany. In i860 the annual average of 
goldfinches caught round about Worthing—then a favourite haunt—was 
1,154 dozens, all cocks. In these days of scarcity the hens, unlike the 
rule adopted in the case of linnets, are not killed. They are kept to be 
sold as cocks to the unwary, who cannot well distinguish them from this 
year’s cocks known as “grey pates and branchers.” 
It is no wonder that our supply of English goldfinches should be 
dwindling. It was stated some time ago before a Committee of 
the House of Commons that a boy could catch forty dozen of 
a morning on the Downs between Kemp Town and Rottingdean. 
But those days are now past. With linnets, however, trade is still 
brisk. There is demand and there is supply. It seems incredible, but 
400 dozen a week are reckoned a small average for October, it has been 
known to reach 600 dozen. Delivered in London the trade price is about 
half-a-crown a dozen for cocks, and ninepence a dozen for hens. But 
hens are scarcely a quotable commodity. They are, as we have seen, 
generally killed on the ground. When sent up for sale the idea is certainly 
imposition. Sometimes they do duty as cocks ; sometimes a wing is 
broken, a little yellow paint spread over the brown plumage, and then they 
are sold to the unwary as tame and highly accomplished canaries. But 
this business happily does not prosper as it used. Linnets do not long 
retain, and they never seem to acquire, the bright plumage of fresh caught 
examples. The lemon-breasted linnet you get at Brighton and the rose 
linnet almost all over England—but rarely in a bird that has been two 
years caged. It is otherwise with the goldfinch. Captivity has no effect 
upon his brilliant colouring. He is caught cheifly for the London market 
on the Downs near Eastbourne, and in the London market in the present 
month his price to the trade is 12s. a dozen. Next month he will be much 
dearer, and when we have turned Christmas he will be quoted at 24s. a 
dozen. His constant popularity combined with his increasing scarceness 
causes his price to rise as the year runs on, and when we come to April, 
of course, the close time protects him. But Londoners still want their 
favourite bird, and the foreigner has to supply him. By summer time all 
our English goldfinches will have been sold off, and the market supplied 
with “ German goods.” The German birds are bigger than our own, and 
the plumage brighter and fuller. 
Another peculiarity of the Germans is that the hens are not easily 
distinguishable from the cocks. Hens and cocks are alike sent over—they 
arrive in those familiar little travelling cages—and the retail dealer here, 
who buys by the dozen, has to run his chance. On an average, in the 
dozen, there are seven cocks. Spain also comes to the rescue. We get 
very little from France. The French are themselves so very fond of cage 
birds that they consume what their country is able to supply. The Spanish 
goldfinches are in every way a surprise. Unlike the Spaniards themselves, 
they are poor in colour and rich in voice. We get them every year, but 
hitherto not in any great quantity. 
W. L. Woodroffe. 
Copies of Leaflet, 3 d. per doz., or 1/9 per 100 , post free, also Cards of Membership can 
be obtained from Mrs. Phillips, Vaughan House, Croydon; Miss C. V. Hall, 11 , Moreland 
Road, Croydon"; or the Hon. Sec., Mrs. Lemon, Redhill, Surrey. 
