LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH 493 



on chamise achenes, and in early summer they are closely restricted 

 to the patches of fiddleneck that furnish most of their food through 

 the nesting period. 



For a month after mid-March 1938, large numbers of Lawrence's 

 goldfinches congregated with several other kinds of seed-eating birds, 

 green-backed goldfinches, house finches, juncos, and lark sparrows, 

 to forage in a vineyard on a south-facing gentle slope. Generally 

 the Lawrence goldfinch outnumbered the other species in the flocks. 

 At first the most conspicuous plants they fed on were red-maids. 

 By the end of March other prominent annuals coming into seed 

 were red-stem filaree, annual bluegrass, and common peppergrass. 

 The birds showed a preference for the ripening seeds of peppergrass, 

 and spent much time in the extensive patches of it. By April 15 

 they were eating seeds of shepherd's purse. 



The abundant chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) provides food 

 for this bird from midsummer untU late winter. One July morning 

 a group of goldfinches fed in three bushes in an area 12 feet across. 

 Perched in the highest branches 6 feet up and 8 feet apart, they fed 

 quietly and continuously, keeping the body upright and reaching 

 upward and forward to the clusters of flowers and ripening achenes. 

 They stripped only the basal half of each head, thus taking the drier 

 fruits and leaving the green ones. 



One July day 10 or more Lawrence's goldfinches foraged with 

 two or three green-backed goldfinches on a tract that had been bm'ned 

 a year earlier. The Lawrence's goldfinches fed only on the nutlets 

 of the large prickly cryptantha {Cryptantha muricata) and were not 

 seen that day on any other kind of plant. The green-backed gold- 

 finches were eating mainly seeds of chia (Salvia columbariae) and 

 Indian tobacco (Nicotiana higelovii) and were not seen to eat the 

 cryptantha, an interesting example of how closely related species 

 sometimes contrast sharply in feeding habits, even while foraging 

 together. 



The common fiddleneck {Amsinckia intermedia) grew abundantly 

 in the deserted hayfields for several years after the Reservation was 

 established. Those were the years when the Lawrence's goldfinch 

 was most abundant. When the patches of fiddleneck became smaller, 

 the number of nesting Lawrence's goldfinches also declined. Con- 

 tinuous observations from early April to late July show the species 

 depends more on this one food than on any other. Almost invariably 

 a feeding goldfinch at that season is in a fiddleneck plant (Linsdale, 

 1950). 



James L. Ortega (1945) saw on June 1 in southern California a 

 female Lawrence's goldfinch fly to a dove's nest, punctui-e one egg, 

 and eat its contents. 



