194 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare's Time. 
The learned commentator on Du Bartas, who has been 
previously quoted, gives the etymology of goldfinch :— 
“ The Greekes call this bird jpce7dlis, that is to say, painted, by 
reason of the pleasant varietie of his feathers. The Latines call him 
carduelis; the French, clxardoueret; the English, gold-finch; and 
therefore it is called chardoueret, because, saith Belon in his seventh 
booke, and thirteenth chapter, he liveth upon the grain of the thistle 
[carduus].” 
Of the Spinke, a finch of some kind, probably the Chaf¬ 
finch, the same writer adds :— 
“He is described by Belon in the seventh booke, chapter 28, and is so 
called, because hee pincheth and holdeth very strongly with his neb, 
as Belon saith. The Latines call him fringilla, and he useth a 
pleasant warbling note.” (Summary on Du Bartas , p. 235.) 
The chaffinch was also known as the pink, or wet bird, 
from a notion that its song indicated rain. 
Thomas Muffett, in his Healths Improvement , informs 
us that “ finches for the most part live upon seeds, 
especially the goldfinch, which refuses to eat of anything 
else” (p.IOl). “So also,” he says, “doth the canary finch or 
siskin.” The siskin is well named by this author the 
canary finch. It much resembles that bird in shape 
and movements, though it is not so brilliant in colour. 
The siskin is called in the southern counties the barley- 
bird, being seen about the time when barley is ripe; in 
other parts of the country it is called the aberdavine. 
Several of the finch tribe seem to have been taught 
small accomplishments. Sir Thomas Browne mentions— 
“ a kind of antbus, goldfinch, or fool’s coat, commonly called a draw- 
water, finely marked with red and yellow, and a white bill, which 
they take with trap-cages, in Norwich gardens, and, fastening a chain 
about them, tied to a box of water, it makes a shift, with bill and 
leg, to draw up the water in to it from the little pot, hanging by the 
chain about a foot below.” (Yol. iv. p. 323, ed. Wilkins.) 
In Whitney’s Emblems , printed in 1585, there is a 
