Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/169

 nearest patch, with undulating flight, twittering as they rise:—

and thus roving in small flocks, through the autumn and winter, living almost entirely on various seeds, particularly those of the different species of thistle, they perform good service to the agriculturist by consuming the prolific source of many a noxious weed."

There is no European bird that equals the Goldfinch in the beauty, compactness, and neatness of its nest. It is often built on a fruit tree in the orchard, on some small and weak branch. The outer part is composed of fine moss, lichen, blades of grass, fine twigs and roots, wool, cotton, worsted, &c., all beautifully felted together, and rounded so that no ragged ends shall project; and lined with down from the catkins of the willow, with feathers and hair, made very smooth. But birds in general will take the materials that they can most readily obtain, provided these can be adapted to their purpose. "On the 10th of May, 1792," remarks Bolton, "I observed a pair of Goldfinches beginning to make their nest in my garden; they had formed the groundwork of 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. Afterwards 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