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Downs, capture them in thousands at the time of the out- and in-coming migrations. The men are well acquainted with a variety of goldfinch known by the name of "cheval." These birds I have seen frequently. One which I had in a cage showed but little difference in colour and habits to those generally caught, though it was very much larger in size.

This large variety is well known in the Southern counties as the "cheval goldfinch." They are not as numerous at any time as their smaller brethren. They used to be much prized by the bird-catchers, who would ask half as much again for a cheval in good plumage as for any of the other birds. price was not grudged, for they were fine specimens.

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My own opinion is, that they are visitors from the Continent, where, under favourable circumstances, they have developed to their utmost limit. The fact that they are to a certain extent local strengthens this theory. The line of the Southern counties seems to be their limit, and the extent of their travelling, beyond which boundary I have never found them. It is to be hoped that in time the migrations of our most common birds will be more systematically worked out than they are at present.

Amongst those birds who cross the sea are thrushes, larks, finches, and the tiny goldcrest, so tender that it dies if you hold it in your hand too long. The fisherman of the North Sea and of different parts of our dangerous coasts tell of birds taking shelter on and about their vessels when the weather is rough. They are left unmolested, and continue their journey as soon as the storm is over.

The bramble-finch, very like the chaffinch in shape, though more sturdily built, is a bird of a more Northern clime. In severe winters it migrates southwards in vast flocks, and is often seen associated with the chaffinch in the beech-woods, where the mast is his chief food. The winter plumage of the bramble-finch, or brambling, is coloured with shades of orange, brown, black, yellow, and white, with here and there a touch of grey. His appearance in the country is very uncertain, his visits depending probably on the food to be got. Though the bramble-finches eat insects and seeds, their favourite food seems to be the beech-mast, and as there is not a full crop of these every year, their visits are consequently irregular. Unlike the schoolboy, who hunts for beech-nuts when they first fall,

the brambling waits until they have lain under the leaves for a month or two, when the outer covering has softened. I have known numbers of these birds visit the neighbourhood of Dorking and the Tillingbourne, and especially the woods of Wotton. Of late years they have become scarcer.

I kept a pair once, to observe their change of plumage in breeding-time. It was remarkable, the head and back of the cock bird turning jet-black. They were birds of a somewhat unpleasant disposition, so after a time I gave them their liberty.

The finches are bright and intelligent birds, very useful in their proper home-the woods and the fields; but those who value a full crop-or, in some cases, any crop at all-will be careful to exclude them from the garden.

CHAPTER VI.

OUR THRUSHES.

THREE species only of these are known to the general public; we have six in this country. Three of them are regular migrants, visiting and leaving us again as the seasons come round. All coast-dwellers who are anything of field naturalists are well aware of this fact. I have seen the sand-hills and the drier portion of the flats in the North Kent marshlands covered with birds about to migrate, waiting for a right wind to take them over the Channel.

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"Ah, poor things!" an old boatman would say,

they be waitin' for a right breeze, an' then they'll get out o' harber quick." After the breeze had come, hardly a bird would be visible until the next army of travellers arrived. My own intimate ac

quaintance with them has been made in the fertile and well-wooded counties of Southern England, where the whole family can be heard and studied to the best advantage.

On the hills, and about the moors in the season, you will find that shyest and most wary member of the whole family, the ring-ouzel, called by the rustics the "white-throated blackbird."

Great clouds sweep over the hills, casting, as they travel, moving shadows on the heather and bright green turf of the moor. It is green, for summer's fierce heat has passed; rain has fallen at times just enough to let us know that we may expect no more settled summer weather. We need not regret this, for autumn is clothing the hillside and the moor with the richest broken tones of crimson, olive, orange, grey, and buff. Rough gullies intersect the moor in many parts, flanked on either side by high banks; although these can hardly be called roads, yet they are used for that purpose. They are, in reality, huge masses of stone, covered with a thin crust of peat soil. Changes in the weather have affected some parts, causing them to crumble, and laying bare a cliff of greystone covered here

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