394 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



In Britain (Witherby, 1938) the goldfinch is "Usually gregarious. 

 Roosts in trees * * * hedges or bushes in parties unmixed (as a rule) 

 with other species." On Long Island the birds seemed similarly 

 sufficient unto themselves. The small flocks of 6 to a maximum of 17 

 individuals were never observed to contain other species, nor did they 

 ever mix with the larger flocks of 60 to 70 American goldfinches 

 wintering nearby. The latter resorted to the more open fields, while 

 the European goldfinches remained in the tangles of burdock and 

 composites in backyard gardens closer to dwellings. 



Elsewhere in America scattered individuals have been reported 

 consorting most often with American goldfinches, occasionally with 

 pine siskins and juncos. Nichols (1936) reports a European and an 

 American goldfinch feeding together in the sweetgums in Garden City. 

 One was reported in company with American goldfinches near Flushing 

 on the north shore of Long Island in December 1946. Doris Heustis 

 Mills (1937) watched a lone bird at Hanover, N.H., May 13, 1937, 

 feeding with American goldfinches on larch catkins and joining them 

 and siskins on the ground to search for weed seeds. 



Voice. — The common call note is a rapid tswit-i-wit, occasionally 

 abbreviated. Like the per-chic~o-ree of the American goldfinch, it is 

 given both when perched and in flight and, when learned, similarly 

 identifies the unseen bird. Another common note is a soft, inflected, 

 musical, canarylike sweee, which Witherby (1938) transcribes as mahi 

 and apparently expresses concern or worry. He describes the aggres- 

 sive note as a grating " 'geez' * * * shorter and much coarser" than 

 the tswee note of the greenfinch. Massapequa birds apprehensive of 

 the safety of the nest uttered all these notes, and occasionally a 

 deflected cheeeu, usually swaying from side to side at the same time. 

 When startled the bird shows its alarm with a sharp zit. 



One incubating female showed her awareness of the alarm notes of 

 nearby robins by becoming briskly alert and moving her head toward 

 the direction of the calls. Several times when a male, presumably 

 her mate, flew above the nest maple uttering the tswit-i-wit call, she 

 answered with a soft, inflected, musical note. The young in the nest 

 are usually silent until a day or two before they leave, when they 

 start to chipper softly while fluttering on the nest rim at feeding time. 



The male's superb and sprightly song during the breeding season 

 starts usually with the tswit-i-wit call note, continues with a couple 

 of twittering phrases of three or four notes each, then develops richly 

 with intermingled inflective calls, musical pipings, and trills. In late 

 July near sunset one male uttered 27 identical phrases of 3 to 4 

 seconds each at about 5-second intervals, which he followed with a 

 longer 28th phrase and then stopped. I heard another bird give two 

 similar series of 14 and 15 phrases each within a half hour. The 



