170 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



brooding male indigo finch, showing an injury to 

 one of his eyes, undoubtedly received during a 

 former nesting period in a thorn bush. 



A picture I greatly appreciate is of a male 

 goldfinch feeding his young. This was the first 

 goldfinch nest I ever found that I could work on 

 with comfort from the ground. The four young- 

 sters filled it almost to overflowing, and from its 

 location at the base of a levee beside the river, I 

 had light on it for only a part of the forenoon. 

 At this nest I secured a picture of the male bird 

 clinging to the largest branch, from the intersec- 

 tion which held the structure, his side toward the 

 camera so that the picture showed his folded 

 wing and tail, one foot, his head, his eyes, and 

 parted beak sharply cut, holding a morsel of food, 

 white in colour, which he was in the act of regur- 

 gitating to drop into one of the four open, up- 

 turned beaks in the cradle. This nest also showed 

 the rain of excrement dropped over its edges by 

 the young, for goldfinches are among the birds 

 that do not pay any attention to this feature of 

 parenthood. 



In another location I once made a good repro- 

 duction of a brooding mother goldfinch standing 

 on the edge of her nest turning her eggs before she 

 entered it to brood. In all my field work I have 

 secured such a study but twice. 



When it comes to the question of temperament, 

 I have many pictures of different kinds of hawks 



