During recent years I have met with it breeding in Surrey, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devonshire, and Westmorland. I know a place in the second-named county where as many as ten pairs bred in one season, and within the last half-dozen years I have twice seen small flocks in the autumn near London, which, let us hope, is an encouraging sign. It is now rare in Scotland, but has been described as still common in the poorer and wilder parts of Ireland. The Goldfinch is a migratory bird, although a few individuals winter with us, and are known in the spring from members of the species that have spent the cold season farther south by their less brilliant colours. [Illustration: NEST AND EGGS OF GOLDFINCH.] The nest is placed in the fork of an apple, pear, or other fruit tree in orchards and gardens; sometimes in evergreens or on the bough of a sycamore or chestnut tree, and occasionally in a thick hedgerow. It is composed of rootlets, moss, dry grass, wool, spiders’ webs, and lichens on the outside, and has an inner lining of vegetable down, hairs, and soft feathers. It is a neat and beautiful structure. The eggs number from four to six, and are greyish-or greenish-white, spotted and streaked with light purplish-and reddish-brown and grey. Although some people do not rank the Goldfinch very highly as a feathered vocalist, its twittering song is full of melody and sweetness, and together with its striking beauty and lively manners endear it to the heart of every lover of the country and its sights and sounds. Bechstein says, “Its agreeable song, which is only discontinued during moulting, is a mixture of tones and harmonies more or less dwelt upon.” It sings both when perched and upon the wing. Instances are upon record of young Goldfinches taken from the nest when only two or three days old, reproducing when they grew up not the music of their own kind, but the songs of other species heard from their places of captivity. The poets have not given the bird a great deal of attention, but our photograph of a nest and eggs proves that Grahame was a good observer, else he could not have penned the following lines: “Sometimes suspended at the limber end Of planetree spray, among the broad-leav’d shoots The tiny hammock swings to every gale.” The call notes have been written down as _ziflit_ or _tisflit_, _twee-eet_ or _twit_, oft repeated, and _glit_ uttered quickly. [Illustration: bushes and trees] =THE BLACKCAP WARBLER.= [Illustration: reeds] Although generally distributed in suitable parts of England and Wales, and found breeding sparingly in the Lowlands of Scotland and certain parts of Ireland, the Blackcap Warbler is not so common in my experience as the youthful student would be led to believe after reading several books I could name upon ornithology.