The goldfinch is a good choice. It is perhaps the
most charmingly coloured of all our birds. The red and yellow and white compose well with the thistle head on which he is poised like a " sailor tomtit by the knees." The painting of that most faithful artist, Mr. J. C. Harrison, is " to the life," as Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare's portrait. It was specially painted for the Trust, and the original is to be sold for the benefit of the Trust. The series now consists of the Bearded Tit (which bred in Norfolk), of the Crossbill and the Goldfinch. It is a happy omen that all the three species have multiplied, and the Goldfinch has extended its range in a surprising quarter. It has taken kindly to Australia. Few experiences with birds are more vivid in my memory than a morning spent for the most part in the boughs of an evergreen. I could scarcely believe my eyes when a goldfinch, and presently a number of goldfinches, appeared at the end of the bough on which I sat. They looked strange fellows for a huge white cockatoo, with a crest of goldfinch yellow, which was cracking almonds on a bough of the next tree. This was near the new capital Canberra while it was still little more than contour that con- siderably upset the a priori plans of the architects. Are there still goldfinches in the purlieus'? Ten years ago they seemed to take as kindly to the place as the English oaks to the lovely Park at Perth.
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