WILLOW GOLDFINCH 471 



Most of its food consists of the seeds of noxious or neutral plants. 

 Its food habits commend the bird, as much as its bright plumage 

 and fine song." 



Behavior. — In all of its other habits, in its undulating flight and its 

 happy call notes, it reminds us of the familiar "wild canary" of the 

 eastern states, and we recognize the close relationship. It is a happy, 

 wandering bit of sunshine, pleasing to both eye and ear. 



Distribution 



Breeding range. — The willow goldfinch breeds, and is largely resi- 

 dent, west of the Sierra Nevada in California (Smith River, Edgewood, 

 southeast to Cabezon and Escondido) and in northwestern Baja 

 California (10 miles south of Ensenada). 



Winter range. — Winters in southern California east to the Mohave 

 and Colorado deserts (Yermo, Twentynine Palms, Palm Springs) 

 and south in Baja California to lat. 30° 30' N. (San Ram6n, San 

 Quintin Plains). 



Casual records. — Casual in northeastern California (Litchfield) and 

 Arizona (Parker). 



Egg dates. — California: 112 records, April 10 to July 24; 56 records, 

 May 18 to June 14. 



SPINUS PSALTRIA PSALTRIA (Say) 



Lesser Goldfinch 

 Contributed by Alfred Otto Gross 



Habits 



Stephen H. Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819-20 

 collected the first known lesser goldfinch on the banks of the Arkansas 

 River between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colo., near long. 105° W. 

 Thomas Say (1823) described it and named it Fringilla psaltria, 

 and for the next 135 years it was known commonly as the Arkansas 

 goldfinch. This was an unfortunate choice, for after the state of that 

 name was established people tended to associate the bird with the 

 state instead of the lesser-known Colorado river from which the name 

 derived. As the bird has never been recorded in Arkansas, which 

 Hes well east of the species' laiown range, its vernacular name was 

 changed officially to lesser goldfinch in the 5th edition of the A.O.U. 

 Check-List. 



In Colorado the lesser goldfinch is a summer resident, arriving 

 usually about mid-June and remaining until September or October. 

 Cooke (1897) reports an early flock seen at Colorado Springs on May 

 13, 1898. According to Drew (1885) the upper limit of its vertical 



