EASTERN GOLDFINCH 459 



with ripe cones." O. A. Stevens (1931) reports the bird "feedmg upon 

 seeds of the goatsbeard (Tragopogon pratense)" in North Dakota. 

 Austin Paul Smith (1915), speaking of the bird in Ai'kansas, says: 

 "While never seeming to lack a ready food supply, this varied much 

 with the seasons. In the fall, favorite food items were seeds of 

 catmint, bm-dock, ragweed, etc.; in winter, seeds of sweet gum and 

 sycamore; in spring, the upripe seeds of various plants." Hervey 

 BrackbiU (1942), writing of Maryland, gives good evidence that the 

 goldfinches rifle small oak galls growing on the twigs of white oaks to 

 obtain a gall maker "at all stages of development — larva, pupa and 

 adult." 



Edward H. Forbush (1913) remarks: "During the spring, when 

 unhampered by family cares, and wandering through fields and 

 orchards, they feed considerably on cankerworms. They sometimes 

 frequent grain fields, where they are said to devour noxious insects, 

 including the Hessian fly. Goldfinches often feed very largely in 

 winter on the eggs of plant lice; this has been observed many times. 

 Mr. Kirkland examined the stomach of one of these birds, and found 

 it contained two thousand, two hundred and ten eggs of the white 

 birch aphis. Chermaphis laricifoliae is an aphis that is common on 

 larches. It deposits great numbers of stalked eggs in April and May, 

 which produce the young lice that feed on the trees in summer, 

 Mr. Kirkland saw a flock of over forty goldfinches going systematically 

 over some infested larch trees, beginning at the top of a tree and work- 

 ing gradually down to the lower branches, then repeating the perform- 

 ance on the next tree." 



Mrs. Amelia R. Laskey writes to us that the food of the goldfinch 

 includes flower buds and seeds of elms, seeds from the pods of the 

 trumpet vine, and flower buds. Mr. BrackbiU in his notes adds berries 

 of Japanese honeysuckle and seeds of wild aster, burdock, chicory, 

 wild lettuce, evening primrose, woodland sunflower, thistle, and 

 tulip tree. 



Charles H. Blake (notes) adds buds of the quaking aspen (Populus 

 tremuloides) in late March, young leaves of the European mountain 

 ash (Sorbus aucuparia) in mid-April, and seeds of the goldenrod 

 {Solidage rugosa) in late September. 



Mrs. T. E. Winford writes Mr. Bent of watching a number of birds 

 in early March eating the seeds out of rotten apples. H. Lewis 

 Batts, Jr. (1955), mentions seeds of thistle (Cirsium), Cinquefoil 

 (Potentilla), aster (Aster), St. Johnswort (Hypericum), and certain 

 grasses as winter food. 



Floyd B. Chapman (1948) reports a case of the goldfinch eating 

 fruit, which is not a common habit. He says that the birds came to 



