Hangc: Common in N'orlli America from the tropics to the lur countries 

 and west to California. 



Migrations: May, October. Common summer resident, often seen ni 

 winter as well. 



Does every ciiild know that the goldtinch has a si)arrowy look in the winter 

 season? And he should have, for he belongs to the same family. His jjlumage 

 in the winter months is a blending of dull grays and browns, quite unlike the 

 brilliant yellow and jet black of his summer suit. In April as he comes from 

 the thick woods, where he has wintered, he appears in breeding plumage. These 

 changes of plumage are eflfected by moults which take place in the autumn and 

 again in early spring. There is less change in the plumage of his mate; the olive 

 green and yellow of her '^ummer dress is replaced by the dull grays and browns 

 of winter. 



Many boys and girls call the goldfinches wild canaries. They are not 

 canaries but finches; for their habits of .song, flight and food-getting are very 

 much like the sparrows and finches. They also are known erroneously as thistle 

 birds, and yellowbirds. 



Watch a pair of them feeding upon the seeds of the thistle, wild lettuce 

 and mustard. Do you know of a prettier moving picture as they flit from one 

 stalk to another, illuminating each separate plant with the shining gold of their 

 well-formed bodies? Last summer a pair of them came almost daily to the 

 vegetable oyster plants that grew outside our garden fence. I loved to watch 

 them pull the slender, chafTy seeds from the long capsule, taking with each 

 billful the seed part and letting the chaff drop to the ground. Their food consists 

 chiefly of all kinds of weed seeds, especially the seeds of ragweed, muflein. 

 dandelion and sunflower. In summer they eat some insects, such as plant lice 

 and young grasshoppers. 



Everybody loves the goldfinch's song. It is a sweet, spontaneous medley 

 of rippling slurs and trills that charms the most wayward ear. Listen to him 

 as he sits on the garden fence singing his mating song, and when he goes 

 bounding over the frozen fields calling "per-chi-o-re," and again when he settles 

 down in a patch of weeds uttering his feeding notes, "twee, twee, twee, twee." 



Have you ever seen the gol Ifinch's nest? They build late; some time after 

 the fourth of July. Collecting some bits of bark, grass fibers and down, the 

 female forms them into a compact waterproof nest. This she lines with plant 

 down — thistle, lettuce and dandelion silk. What a beautiful thing it is! So 

 skilfully made and formed, as if it had grown into shape like the saucer of 

 an acorn ! In this almost water-tight, silk-lined nest from three to six bluish- 

 white eggs are laid. The eggs are quite small and a spotless white. 



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