YELLOW-BIRD, OR AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 507 



§ II. In these species the palate is scooped and grooved. 



Subgenus. — Carduelis. 



The bill somewhat lengthened, narrower than the head, straight, 

 and compressed ; both mandibles acute. 



YELLOW-BIRD, or AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 



{Frlngilla tristis, L. Wilsox, i. p. 20. pi. 1. fig. 2. [male.] Bonap. 

 Am. Orn. i. p. 57. pi. 6. fig. 4. [female.] Auu. pi. 33. Orn. i. p. 172. 



Sp. Charact. — Wings black, varied with white ; tail-feathers black, 

 interiorly white towards the tips. — Male, in summer dress, yel- 

 low; crown black. — Female, young, and autumnal male, hrown- 

 olive ; beneath yellowish- white. 



This common, active, and gregarious Goldfinch is a 

 very general inhabitant of the United States. It is also 

 found in summer in the remote interior of Canada, near 

 Lake Winnipiq:ie, in the 49th degree of latitude. On 

 the other hand it is also met with in Mexico, and even in 

 Guiana and Surinam in tropical America, where they fre- 

 quent the savannas. Although many of these birds, which 

 spend the summer here, leave at the approach of winter, 

 yet hungry flocks are seen to arrive in this part of New 

 England throughout that season ; and sometimes, in com- 

 pany with the Snow Buntings, in the inclement months 

 of January and February, they may be seen busily em- 

 ployed in gleaning a scanty pittance from the seeds of the 

 taller weeds, which rise above the deep and drifted snows. 

 As late as the loth of September I have observed a 

 nest of the Yellow-bird, with the young still unfledged. 

 Their migrations are very desultory, an5 do not probably 

 extend very far, their progress being apparently governed 

 principally by the scarcity or abundance of food with 

 which they happen to be supplied. Thus, though they 

 may be numerous in the depth of winter, as soon as the 

 weather relaxes, in the month of March, scarcely any 



