5 



Handbook of Nature -Study 



Later it tucks its head under its wing for the night, and then looks like a 

 little ball of feathers on the perch. 



Canaries make a great fuss when building their nest. A pasteboard 

 box is usually given them with cotton and string for lining; usually one 

 pulls out what the other puts in; and they both industriously tear the 

 paper from the bottom of the cage to add to their building material. 

 Finally, a make-shift of a nest is completed and the eggs are laid. If the 

 singer is a good husband, he helps incubate the eggs and feeds his mate 

 and sings to her frequently ; but often he is quite the reverse and abuses 

 her abominably. The nest of the caged bird is very different in appear- 

 ance from the neat nests of grass, plant down, and moss which the wild 

 ancestors of these birds made in some safe retreat in the shrubs or ever- 

 greens of the Canary Islands. The canary eggs are pale blue, marked 

 with reddish-brown. The incubation period is 13 to 14 days. The 

 young are as scrawny and ugly as most little birds and are fed upon food 

 partially digested in the parents' stomachs. Their first plumage resem- 

 bles that of the mother usually. 



In their wild state in the Canary and Azore Islands, the canaries are 

 olive green above with golden yellow breasts. When the heat of spring 

 begins, they move up the mountains to cooler levels and come down again 

 in the winter. They may rear three or four broods on their way up the 

 mountains, stopping at successive heights as the season advances, until 

 finally they reach the high peaks. 



THE GOLDFIXCH OR THISTLE BIRD 



goldfinches are bird 



midgets 



The 



but their songs are so sweet and 

 reedy that they seem to fill the 

 world with music more effectually 

 than many larger birds. They 

 are fond of the seeds of wild 

 grass, and especially so of thistle 

 seed ; and they throng the pastures 

 and fence corners where the thistles 

 hold sway. In summer, the male 

 has bright yellow plumage with 

 a little black cap "pulled down 

 over his nose" like that of a 

 grenadier. He has also a black 

 tail and wings with white-tipped 

 coverts and primaries. The tail 

 feathers have white on their inner 

 webs also, which does not show 

 when the tail is closed. The female 

 has the head and back brown and 

 the under parts yellowish-white, 

 with wings and tail resembling 

 those of the male except that they 

 are not so vividly black. In 

 winter the male dons a dress more 

 like that of his mate; he loses his 

 black cap but keeps his black wings and tail. 



A pair of goldfinches. 



(Courtesy of Audubon Educational 

 Leaflet No. 17). 



