492 us. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



the time, but nearly every adult was closely followed by one or two 

 young birds begging to be fed. Several young ones in chamise bushes 

 pecked at the flowers, and two picked at leaves. 



In late July a pah- with two young out of the nest fed in a patch of 

 chamise. The parents fed continuously on the newly ripened seeds in 

 the tops of the bushes while their two young perched lower in the bushes 

 between them. They changed perches from time to time and followed 

 the adults chirping loudly and quivering their wings. One young bird 

 fluttered its wings in a wide arc, but the movement involved only the 

 distal parts. The female then fed this bird by regurgitation about 

 eight successive times. When she seemed to gulp more food herself 

 between deliveries, the juveniles made the loudest outcries and flut- 

 tered hardest. 



Another July morning a female fed a young Lawrence's goldfmch 

 on a road. The young bird followed the old one closely wherever she 

 went. She picked nutlets from fiddleneck and fed them to the young- 

 ster. It would lunge at her, utter its tinkling caU note several times, 

 open its mouth, and rapidly flap its wings high over its back. At first 

 she backed away, and then fed the young bird several times in suc- 

 cession. 



On August 1 a female and a young bird foraging together on seeds 

 were silent except for a few weak tsip-tsip notes. The young bird 

 then gave a continuous series of caUs with a somewhat nasal quality, 

 and the adult uttered one high-pitched, 2-part note. Although this 

 young one was clearly associated with the adult, it picked its own food 

 from the plants. It was rather clumsy and it lost its balance occa- 

 sionally, but it was not fed by the parent. 



Plumages. — Adult male has anterior portion of head all round, in- 

 cluding throat and forepart of crown, black; above brownish gray 

 (the back sometimes tinged w4th ohve green), changing to yellowish 

 olive-green on rump ; sides of head and lateral underparts paler brown- 

 ish gray, becoming white on under tail coverts and abdomen; chest 

 and median portion of breast yeUow. Outer webs of wing coverts 

 and remiges partly yeUow; inner webs of rectrices (except middle 

 pair) with subterminal white. Adult females are similar to adult 

 males, but without black on head ; the colors in general are duUer, with 

 the yellow less distinct. The juvenal plumage is similar to that of 

 the adult female, with colors duller, the yellow on the breast less 

 distinct, and upperparts obsoletely streaked. 



Food. — Lawrence's goldfinches forage in flocks in patches of low, 

 seed-bearing herbs and shrubs. Though they have been noted eating 

 20 different plant foods on the Hastings Reservation, they eat fewer 

 kinds of seeds than do the green-backed goldfinches, and they forage 

 over fewer types of plant associations. They concentrate in winter 



