"Goldfinch" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Stephens. French, "Chardonneret," "Grosbec chardonneret."—The Goldfinch is resident in and breeds in all the Islands. In Guernsey I was told a few years ago that it had been much more numerous than it then was, the bird-catchers having had a good deal to answer for in having shortened its numbers. It is now, however, again increasing its numbers, as I saw many ...
— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith
... wool, hair, blood-clots, etc., etc., and almost always ends fatally. A great deal of mystery and superstition has always existed in connexion with this stone—the invisibility of the bearer of the egg-carbuncle laid by a goldfinch, for instance. ...
— The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones • John Mastin
... me with your blarneyings, you siren!" he declared. "Who was it ate my goldfinch? Yes, you may well look guilty! Don't blink your eyes at me like that! I haven't forgiven you yet, and I don't think I ever shall. Ingred, old sport, are you coming to help me, or are you not? I want some one to hold ...
— A Popular Schoolgirl • Angela Brazil
... daisy, Sweet-William, and sweet marjoram—and all The tribe of single and of double pinks! Now, too, the feather'd warblers tune their notes Around, and charm the listening grove. The lark! The linnet! chaffinch! bullfinch! goldfinch! greenfinch! But O, to me no joy can they afford! Nor rose, nor wallflower, nor smart gillyflower, Nor polyanthus mean, nor dapper daisy, Nor William sweet, nor marjoram—nor lark, Linnet nor all ...
— Scarborough and the Critic • Sheridan
... Starling, And the wonderful Peacock; The Lapwing and Peewit, The bold Yellowhammer, The bad Willy-wagtail, The Raven so awful, And the Cock with his Hens; Stone-checker, Hedge-sparrow, And Lint-white and Lark, The Tom-tit and Linnet, And brisk little Sparrow, The King-fisher too, And my own little Goldfinch. ...
— The Boy Who Knew What The Birds Said • Padraic Colum
... birds are thy parishioners: Thou marriest every year The lyrique lark, and the grave whispering dove, The sparrow, that neglects his life for love, The household bird with the red stomacher; Thou mak'st the blackbird speed as soon As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon.' ...
— Prose Fancies • Richard Le Gallienne
... girl tripped along the platform, carrying in one hand a large pasteboard box covered with black oilcloth, and in the other a cage with a goldfinch in it. She looked back at Dorothea and smiled, proud of herself because she had saved her goldfinch. A Belgium boy carried a paralyzed old man on his shoulders. He grinned at Dorothea, proud of himself because he had saved his grandfather. A young ...
— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair
... walls Of Hell with horror ringing, Say "In the greenwood of his soul There was a goldfinch ...
— A Cluster of Grapes - A Book of Twentieth Century Poetry • Various
... green of my garden Blackbirds and throstle and wren, Wet your dear wings in the tears that are Spring's And so to your singing again! Birds in my blossoming orchard, Chaffinch and goldfinch and lark, Preen your bright wings, little happy live things; The May trees grow white ...
— The Rainbow and the Rose • E. Nesbit
... Lyra Tyrian Stanmer Plover Renard Seagull Nautilus Swallow Brisei Cockatrice Scorpion Goldfinch Reindeer Hornet Espoir Mutine Nightingale Camden Pike Lapwing Skylark Duke of York Sheldrake Pigeon Spey Lady Mary ...
— A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western Parts of the World • James MacQueen
... black Ilex on ilex cowers in awful shade. Then once more give them water sparingly, And feed once more, till sunset, when cool eve Allays the air, and dewy moonbeams slake The forest glades, with halcyon's song the shore, And every thicket with the goldfinch rings. Of Libya's shepherds why the tale pursue? Why sing their pastures and the scattered huts They house in? Oft their cattle day and night Graze the whole month together, and go forth Into far deserts where no shelter is, So flat ...
— The Georgics • Virgil
... LINTER. Piano solo, 3s.: Duet, 4s. "Another of the admired sets by the author of the Canary Quadrilles and the Goldfinch Quadrilles, elegantly composed, as ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 214, December 3, 1853 • Various
... Thrush, * blackbird, * lark, * yellowhammer, * robin, *wren, * golden-crested wren, * goldfinch, * chaffinch, * *greenfinch, pied wagtail, sparrow, * dunnock (hedge, accentor), missel thrush, starling, rook, jackdaw, *blackcap, * garden warbler, * willow warbler, * chiffchaff, * wood warbler, tree-creeper, * reed bunting, ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt
... did not escape Varney. Then the meal was finished, the cloth removed, and they were left to their private discourse—"Thou art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony," said Varney, looking at his host; "methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig anon. But I crave your pardon, that would secure your ejection from the congregation of the zealous botchers, the pure-hearted weavers, and the sanctified ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott
... the lady?' said Blanche. 'She assaulted me in the street with inquiries and congratulations about Harry, declaring she had known me as a child, a thing I particularly dislike:' and Mrs. Ernescliffe looked like a ruffled goldfinch. ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge
... rises and sinks like the tinkle of a waterfall. The greenfinches have been by me all the while. A bullfinch pipes now and then further up the hedge where the brambles and thorns are thickest. Boldest of birds to look at, he is always in hiding. The shrill tone of a goldfinch came just now from the ash branches, but he has gone on. Every four or five minutes a chaffinch sings close by, and another fills the interval near the gateway. There are linnets somewhere, but ...
— The Life of the Fields • Richard Jefferies
... watching for rocks, we saw by the flitting clouds, by the first russet tinge on the hills, by the rushing river, the cottages on shore, and the shore itself, so coolly fresh and shining with dew, and later in the day, by the hue of the grape-vine, the goldfinch on the willow, the flickers flying in flocks, and when we passed near enough to the shore, as we fancied, by the faces of men, that the Fall had commenced. The cottages looked more snug and comfortable, and their inhabitants were seen only for a moment, and then went ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau
... GOLDFINCH (Carduelis elegans).—This exquisite little bird is frequent on the borders of the chalk hills, where there is ...
— John Keble's Parishes • Charlotte M Yonge
... of smoke came rising From the chamber of the maiden, From thy daughter's lofty chimney; There the maid was busy grinding, Moved the handles of the millstone Making voices like the cuckoo, Like the ducks the side-holes sounded, And the sifter like the goldfinch, Like the sea-pearls sang the grindstones. "Then a second time I wandered To the border of the meadow In the forest was the maiden Rocking on a fragrant hillock, Dyeing red in iron vessels, And in copper kettles, yellow. "Then ...
— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.
... though it had sung all night, and had need of a little respite, seemed to say—"No, I shall go warbling on; she shall have my very best treble of a ripple." And then there were minor performers in this nature-choir. The Blackbird and Redbreast, Goldfinch and Linnet, and Chaffinch, each took part with striking effect. Even the Swallow in his own quiet way twittered, and the Tomtit chattered, and the Beetle droned, and the Bee hummed, and the big Dragon-fly, in armour of brightest cobalt, whirred; and the Grasshopper, poor ...
— The Story of a Dewdrop • J. R. Macduff
... could resist no longer. I killed a little creature as an experiment, for a beginning. Jean, my servant, had a goldfinch in a cage hung in the office window. I sent him on an errand, and I took the little bird in my hand, in my hand where I felt its heart beat. It was warm. I went up to my room. From time to time I squeezed it tighter; its heart beat faster; this was atrocious ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... February's few flowers, Ere March came in with Marlowe's rapturous rage: Peele, from whose hand the sweet white locks of age Took the mild chaplet woven of honoured hours: Nash, laughing hard: Lodge, flushed from lyric bowers: And Lilly, a goldfinch in a twisted cage Fed by some gay great lady's pettish page Till short sweet songs gush clear like short spring showers: Kid, whose grim sport still gambolled over graves: And Chettle, in whose fresh funereal verse Weeps Marian yet on Robin's wildwood hearse: Cooke, ...
— Sonnets, and Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets (1590-1650) • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... within a prison's gloom, I chearful sung, nor murmur'd at my doom, Where heroes bold and patriots firm could dwell, A Goldfinch in Content his note might swell; But death more gentle than the law's decree, Hath paid my ransom ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, - Issue 479, March 5, 1831 • Various
... It has but little to unlearn or to forget in the one case, but great progress to make in the other. How far is its rudimentary nest—a mere platform of coarse twigs and dry stalks of weeds—from the deep, compact, finely woven and finely modeled nest of the goldfinch or the kingbird, and what a gulf between its indifference toward its young and their solicitude! Its irregular manner of laying also seems better suited to a parasite like our cowbird, or the European cuckoo, than to a ...
— Locusts and Wild Honey • John Burroughs
... : glazuri. glorify : glori. glove : ganto. glow : ardi, brili. "-worm," lampiro. glue : gluo. glycerine : glicerino. gnat : kulo. gnaw : mordeti. goat : kapro. goblet : pokalo. goblin : koboldo. God : Dio. gold : oro. goldfinch : kardelo. golosh : galosxo. goodbye : adiaux. goose : anserino. gooseberry : groso. gospel : evangelio. gout : podagro. govern : regi. governess : guvernistino graceful : gracia. gradual : grada, lauxgrada. graft : inokuli, grefti. grain : grajno, greno. ...
— The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer
... was the Harvester he scarcely heard her. In an attempt to obey he began to whistle softly. A tiny goldfinch in a nest of thistle down and plant fibre in the branching of a bush ten feet above him stuck her head over the brim and inquired, "P'tseet?" "Pt'see!" answer the Harvester. That began the duet. Before the question had been asked and answered a half dozen times a catbird intruded ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter
... when snow was on the ground she used to open the windows to let the robins hop in and pick crumbs on the breakfast-table. On one occasion she went with her father on a tour in the Highlands, and found on her return that a pet goldfinch, which had been left in the charge of the servants, had been neglected by them and had died of starvation. She was almost heart-broken at the event, and in writing her Recollections, seventy years after, she mentioned it ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde
... single day was 70.) The males of the blackbird, he likewise maintained, were by far the more numerous, whether caught by traps or by netting at night. These statements may apparently be trusted, because this same man said that the sexes are about equal with the lark, the twite (Linaria montana), and goldfinch. On the other hand, he is certain that with the common linnet, the females preponderate greatly, but unequally during different years; during some years he has found the females to the males as four to one. It should, however, be borne in ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... the journey I was quite broken-hearted to find my beautiful goldfinch, which used to draw its water so prettily with an ivory cup and little chain, dead in its cage. The odious wretches of servants, to whose care I trusted it, let it die of hunger. My heart is deeply pained as I write this, ...
— Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville • Mary Somerville
... walks through the slums, my father was so fascinated by the intelligence of a busy goldfinch drawing water for himself in his cage—he had other accomplishments as well—that he went in and bought it. But not a thing would the little bird do, not a trick would he perform when he got to his new ...
— My Father as I Recall Him • Mamie Dickens
... myself that females alone have often been modified for protection. Should you grudge the trouble briefly to tell me whether you believe that the plainer head and less bright colours of [female symbol][73] chaffinch, the less red on the head and less clean colours of [female symbol] goldfinch, the much less red on breast of [female symbol] bullfinch, the paler crest of goldencrest wren, etc., have been acquired by them for protection? I cannot think so; any more than I can that the considerable differences between ...
— Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Marchant
... there's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can appear as other birds—sometimes as a swallow, sometimes a goldfinch and sometimes ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... day, as they were sitting together, the Earl turned away his head and muttered some words which his wife could not understand, and that instant he was gone, and instead of him sitting beside her she saw a little goldfinch flying around the room. The goldfinch flew out at the window into the garden; then it flew back and sat on the lady's shoulder and on her hand and on her head, and it sang to her, and so they played together for a time. ...
— Fairies and Folk of Ireland • William Henry Frost
... o'erhead; Hard by, a sacred spring flowed gurgling on From the Nymphs' grot, and in the sombre boughs The sweet cicada chirped laboriously. Hid in the thick thorn-bushes far away The treefrog's note was heard; the crested lark Sang with the goldfinch; turtles made their moan, And o'er the fountain hung the gilded bee. All of rich summer smacked, of autumn all: Pears at our feet, and apples at our side Rolled in luxuriance; branches on the ground Sprawled, overweighed with damsons; while we brushed From the cask's head the crust of four long ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus |
