304 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Genus SPINUS Koch. 

 SPINUS TRISTIS (LixN.). 



219. American Goldfinch. (529) 



Male : — In summer, rich yellow, changing to whitish on the tail coverts ; a 

 black patch on the crown ; wings, l)lack, more or less edged and barred with 

 wliite ; lesser wing coverts, j-ellow ; tail, black, every feather witli a white 

 spot ; bill and feet, flesh-colored. In September the black cap disappears and 

 the general plumage changes to a pale flaxen-brown al)ove and wliitcy -brown 

 below, with traces of the yellow, especially about tlie head ; tliis continues till 

 -the following April or Maj'. Female : — Olivaceous, including tlie crown ; 

 below, soiled yellowish ; wings and tail, dusky, whitish-edged ; i/oiiiig like the 

 female. Length, about 4J ; wing, 2^^ ; tail, 2. 



H.4B. — Temperate North America generally, breeding southward to tlu' 

 middle districts of the United States (to about the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, 

 Kansas and California), and wintering mosth' south of the northern lioundai-y 

 of the United States. 



Nest, a neat, strong structure, resembling that of the Summer Yellow-bird, 

 composed of miscellaneous soft materials flrmly felted together and lined with 

 plant down, usually placed in the upiight fork of a tree or l)ush, from six to 

 twenty feet from the ground. 



Eggs, four to six, pale Iduish-white, unmarked. 



In Southern Ontario the Goldfinch may be considered a resident 

 species, for it nests throughout the country generally, and even in 

 the depth of winter, is often met with unexpectedly in some favored 

 locality where it finds food and shelter. In the severe winter of 

 1885-86, I came upon a colony of this kind in West Flamboro', where 

 several hundreds of the birds were frequenting a grove of hemlock ; 

 and, judging Ity the amount of dehris on the snow underneatli, they 

 must have been there all winter. They were very lively, keeping 

 up a continual chattering as they swayed to and fro on the slender 

 branches, extracting the seeds from the cones. Occasionally, wlien 

 cheered by the mild rays of the wintry sun, some of the males would 

 come to the sunny side of the tree and warble out a few of their 

 varied summer notes, but they spent most of the short wintry day 

 in feeding and in dres.sing their plumage, retiring early to the thick 

 shelter of the evergreens. 



At other seasons of the year, they fre(juent the cultivated fields, 

 orchards and gardens; and in tlie fall, when tlie}^ are seen in gi'eatest 

 numbers, they do good sei'vice in consuming the seeds of the thistle 

 and othei' noxious weeds. They are not in any great haste to begin 

 the duties of liousekeepiiig, and are seen in Hocks till towards the 



