Goldfinch. 1 1 1 



jaunty cap stand in vivid contrast to the gamboge yellow. 

 In the sunlight it seems to us that the wings and tail of 

 the female are not one degree less jet than those of her 

 spouse; and has she the same black forehead? It seems so 

 at first glance, but it is only the jet depths of her bright 

 eyes that cause them to appear as though surrounded by 

 a circle of black. And now away they go in perfect ac- 

 cord, bounding upward with moving wings, and curving 

 downward with folded pinions, uttering their short meas- 

 ures as they rise with the movements of the wings; and 

 perhaps circling about us, they alight in the spot from 

 which they were startled — joyous, careless creatures. 



The goldfinch expresses his joy from all situations — 

 either flying or a-perch on swaying thistle-stem or swing- 

 ing sunflower. I have seen descriptions of his singing, in 

 which he is represented as uttering his flight song on the 

 crest of each wave; but of the many individuals that I 

 have heard sing in Illinois, none sang while at the highest 

 point of the curves of its undulating flight. The ditty is 

 begun as the songster enters the upward path, and is ex- 

 ecuted as an accompaniment to the movement of the 

 wings that carries him upward, and the song is usually 

 finished before the crest of the wave is reached. 



I wonder whether many bird-lovers have heard the ec- 

 static love-song of the goldfinch? I heard it first on a 

 fortunate afternoon in July, and it lingered in my mind 

 for many a day. I first saw the joyous performer sitting 

 on one of the upward spires of a small osage tree, where 

 he was chanting his short, happy measures. Soon he took 

 wing and rode the imaginary aerial waves in an irregular 

 circle above the tree, uttering his flight song, and oc- 

 casionally prolonging it into the voluble chatter that 

 forms the longer performances of this bird. Eound and 

 round the circle he bounded, becoming more rapturous 

 with every circuit, until finally his ecstasy exceeded the 

 limits of his little breast, and he fluttered abruptly up- 

 ward, pouring forth a stream of sweet, softened, hurried 

 notes. Thus he rose for forty or fifty feet, when his powers 

 failed, and with closed wings he darted back to his original 

 perch, where he continued his bubbling song. Such ex- 



