G O L D F I N C H .
CA 111) 11 EL IS EL EG ANS.
THANKS to tho bird-catchers and dealers, tho unfortunate Goldfinches have greatly decreased in numbers during
the last thirty years; it is seldom at the present time that a flock of twenty or thirty are observed in the south of
England, where formerly they were met with in hundreds. The general call for cage birds, and the thousands
needed to supply the demand, could only have caused this falling-off, as the nature of the country is still, with
few exceptions, as suitable to their requirements as it was in days gone by. The extraordinary persecution that
this species has undergone may he judged from some statements iu the fourth edition of Yarrell, where the
following lines occur on page 118, vol. it. :—" Sir. Ilussey in ISfiO (Zool. p. 7111) put the average annual
captures of this species near Worthing at about H o t dozens—nearly all being cock-birds—and it would seem
that a still larger number used to be yearly taken within ten miles of Brighton. In that neighbourhood,
however, it has now become comparaf ively scarce, owing in part to the fatal practice of catching the birds prior
to, or during the breeding-season, and not a bundled may he seen even at the most favourable lime of year."
Such catches may appear incredible to some readers, but many years ago when a school-hoy at Brighton, and
also at Harrow, I have often seen, while in company with some of the most skilful and best equipped
professional catchers, scores and, on one or two occasions, hundreds struggling in the nets after a pull, and can
well understand how the numbers stated to have been taken were reached. I believe that, in those days, theso
two localities, the country around Worthing and Brighton in Sussex and the unreclaimed laud (termed " allotment
grounds ") between one and two miles from Harrow, iu the direction of Pinner, were about the best that could ho
found for this species iu Great Britain.
One of the Brighton bird-catchers informed me lately that his best take at one pull had been eleven dozen,
and these were captured about fivc-and-twenty years ago. During the past season he stated he had been out n
few times, but no flight had taken place, aad his catches had nc\ er reached a dozen in a morning.
The grass-fields adjoining the n ide-spreading shingle-hanks at Miorchaut, where my punt and boat-houses
are built, were formerly a favourite spot for the netting fraternity, and a few years back a man front London
who was well up to his business and provided with an immense stock of call-birds came down regularly every
season, and set »ithin a hundred and fifty yards of my station, where I could obtain an excellent view of his
proceedings. Although Linnets were plentiful, he met with no great success with the Goldfinches; if I remember
right, a single bird was his total catch during one season. I have been in the hahil of fishing and shooting on
this pari of the coast for many years, and have to cross the fields that the Goldtinches formerly passed over at
flight-time, hut no flocks of these birds have attracted my attention during the autumn, though constantly on
the look-out; two or three small parties only, of half a dozen or so, have been observed along the adjoining
hedge-rows that border the field during' the whole time.
While at home at Catsflcld, near Battle in Sussex, for the Christmas holidays during the winters of 18o3
and the two following years, I generally amused myself by working a small bird-net every day when the