THE GOLDFINCH 



Its black and white wings and tail are also distinctive. 

 It is found in flocks during the winter season. 



The Goldfinch or "Wild Canary" is one of our best- 

 loved birds. The beauty of the male's coloring, the sweet- 

 ness of his voice, the joyousness of his nature have won 

 him many friends. 



John Burroughs wrote: "The goldfinch has many 

 pretty ways. So far as my knowledge goes, he is not cap- 

 able of one harsh note. His tones are either joyous or 

 plaintive. In his spring reunions they are joyous. In the 

 peculiar flight song in which he indulges in the mating 

 season, beating the air vertically with his round open 

 wings, his tones are fairly ecstatic. His call to his mate 

 when she is brooding, and when he circles ai)out her in that 

 long, billowy flight, the crests of his airy waves being thirty 

 or forty feet apart, calling, 'Perchic-o-pee, perchic-o-pee,' 

 as if he were saying, 'For love of thee, for love of thee,' and 

 she calling back, 'Yes, dearie; yes, dearie' — his tones at 

 such times express contentment and reassurance. 



"When any of his natural enemies appear — a hawk, 

 a cat, a jay, — his tones are plaintive in sorrow and not 

 in anger. 



"When with his mate he leads their brood about the 

 August thistles, the young call in a similar tone. When 

 in July the nesting has begun, the female talks the pret- 

 tiest 'baby talk' to her mate as he feeds her. The nest- 

 building rarely begins till thistledown can be had, so lit- 

 erally are all the ways of this darling bird ways of 

 softness and gentleness. The nest is a thick, soft, warm 

 structure, securely fastened in the fork of a maple or an 

 apple-tree. 



'» 1 



iFrom "Under The Maples," by John Burroughs; page 42. 



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