year.* For some centuries there have been persons who have
amused themselves with teaching it a variety of tricks, the
commonest being that of drawing up water for its own use
in a toy bucketf, or of raising the lid of the box which contains
its food, while still greater ingenuity has been wasted
in teaching it feats of a character far more unnatural j, and
therefore to a naturalist eminently distasteful. All these
qualities, combined with the ease with which it can he
caught, render the Goldfinch one of the most important
subjects of the bird-dealer’s traffic, and the number netted
—chiefly in the southern counties—in autumn and spring
is enormous. Mr. Hussey in 1860 (Zool. p. 7144) put the
average annual captures of this species near Worthing at
about 1154 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, where, according to Mr.
Swaysland (a witness before the Committee of the House of
Commons on Bird-Protection), a boy could catch forty dozens
* Gesner, not on his own authority however, tells of one which was twenty -
three years old !
f From this fact the bird is fancifully known in some parts of England as
the “ Draw-water ” ; hut its commonest local name perhaps is “ King Harry ” or
“ Redcap,” while in some of the Midland counties it is termed “ Proud Tailor.' ’
In Sir T. Browne’s time it seems to have been known as a “ Fool’s coat.”
+ Syme, writing in 1823, states (Treat. Br. Song-Birds, p. 182) that a few
years before a certain Sieur Roman exhibited a number of trained Finches (Goldfinches,
Linnets and Canaries) which enacted some wonderful parts :—-One seemed
dead, and was held up by the tail or claw, without exhibiting any sign of life ; a
second stood on its head with its claws in the air ; a third imitated a Dutch milkmaid
going to market with pails on its shoulders ; a fourth mimicked a Venetian
girl looking out of a window; a fifth appeared as a soldier, and mounted guard
as a sentinel; a sixth acted as a cannoneer, and, with cap on head, firelock on
shoulder and match in claw, discharged a small cannon. The same bird also
feigned to have been wounded, and was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it
were, to the hospital; after which it flew away before the company. A seventh
turned a kind of windmill; and the last stood in the midst of some fireworks
which were discharged all round it, without exhibiting the least symptom of fear.
In our own time other “ performing” birds have brought their masters much
gain and passing credit from a foolish public. The only thing which can reconcile
the naturalist to witnessing such displays, violating the laws of nature as they do
equally with that melancholy exhibition ironically called the “ Happy Family,”
is the apparently well-founded belief in the docility of the Goldfinch being so
great that little if any cruelty is required to “ perfect” its education.
in a morning. In that neighbourhood, however, it has now
become comparatively scarce owing, in part, to the fatal
practice of catching the birds prior to or during the breeding
season, and not an hundred may be seen even at the
most favourable time of year.*
In spring, and early summer, the Goldfinch frequents
gardens and orchards. Hurdis wrote:
“ I love to see the little goldfinch pluck
The groundsil’s feather’d seed, and twit and twit;
And then in bow’r of apple blossoms perch’d,
Trim his gay suit, and pay us with a song.
I would not hold him pris’ner for the world. ”
Village Curate (1788), p. 44.
The Goldfinch builds a verymeat nest, generally in an
apple- or pear-tree, but very frequently near the end of a leafy
bough of a horse-chestnut or sycamore; and more seldom m
a hedge, a thick bush in a copse, or an evergreen in a shrubbery.
A nest before me is formed on the outside with fine
twigs of fir, green bents, fine roots, wool, and pieces of white
worsted, interwoven together; and is l i n e d w i t h willow-down,
feathers and numerous long hairs, f
The eggs are four or five in number, of a french white,
with a few spots and lines of pale purple and dark reddish-
brown, but occasionally boldly and much more marked or
partly suffused with brownish-purple; they measure from
•72 to ’6 by from *58 to '47 in.
* Report from the Select Committee on Wild Birds Protection &c. Ordered
by the House of Commons to be printed, 23 July 1873, pp. 102-108.
+ I t has been well observed that “ birds will in general take the materials for
building which they can most easily procure.” Bolton says (Harmonia Murahs,
nref n vi )• - “ On the tenth of May, a . d . 1762, I observed a pair of goldfinches
beginning to make their nest in my garden; they had formed the groundwork with
moss, grass, &c. as usual, but on my scattering small parcels of wool in different
parts of the garden, they in a great measure left off the use of their own stuff,
and employed the wool; afterward, I gave them cotton, on which they rejected
the wool, and proceeded with the cotton; the third day I supplied them with fine
down, on which they forsook both the other, and finished their work with this
last article. The nest, when completed, was somewhat larger than is usually
made by this bird, but retained the pretty roundness of figure, and neatness o
workmanship, which is proper to the goldfinch. The nest was completed m the
space of three days, and remained unoccupied for the space of four days, the first
egg not being laid till the seventh day from the beginning of the work.