GOLDFINCH. 
105 
close to it, instead of on the sill as before. The birds soon 
learned to come into the room without fear, and as their 
numbers had continued gradually to increase, there was soon 
a flock of not less than twenty visiting the apartment daily, 
and perfectly undisturbed by the presence of the members of 
the family. As the inclemency of the winter decreased, the 
number of the birds gradually diminished, until at length, when 
the severe weather had quite passed away, there remained 
none except the original pair. 
Their food consists of the seeds of the teazel, the plantain, 
knapweed, chickweed, groundsel, ragwort, hemp, the thistle, 
the hawthorn, corn, fir-cones, grasses, and various herbaceous 
plants: occasionally also of beetles and other insects, which 
are triturated with small gravel. The young birds are fed 
for a time with caterpillars and insects. 
The note, as is so well known, is very sweet and varied. 
It is commenced about the end of March, and is continued 
without much interruption till July. 
The nest is placed in orchard and other trees, especially 
those which are evergreen, in bushes, and in some instances 
in hedges, and at times as much as thirty feet from the 
ground: it is composed externally of grass, moss, lichens, 
small twigs, and roots, or any other appropriate substances. 
Inside it is elaborately interwoven with wool and hair, lined 
with the down of willows and various plants, and sometimes 
a few or more leaves or feathers. It is very neatly finished, 
and Bolton says is completed in three days. 
The eggs, four or five in number, are bluish white, or 
pale greyish blue, sometimes tinged with brown, and are 
slightly spotted with greyish purple and brown, with occa¬ 
sionally a dark streak or two. 
Male; length, five inches; bill, whitish tinged with red, 
the point above and below, blackish brown: it is margined 
at its base with black to the eye, which is dusky brown. 
Forehead, crimson, and over the eyes; head on the crown 
and back, black, on the sides white; neck on the back, black, 
forming a semicircle towards the front; nape, buff brown; 
chin, crimson; throat, white, extending backwards to the 
black, and succeeded by brownish white: breast, pale fulvous 
brown and whitish; hack, darker buff brown, lighter buff 
brown lower down. 
The wings, extend to the width of nine inches; greater wing 
coverts, yellow; lesser wing coverts, black; primaries, black, 
