AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 
American This beautiful little Finch is quite as often 
Goldfinch called the Yellow-bird, or Thistle-bird, two 
. Astragalinus 
pecs names which are due to his coloring and his 
L.5.10inches association with ripe thistles the seeds and 
May 15th,or down of which respectively furnish him 
all the year = with food and asoft nest-lininz. Although 
he remains all winter in certain parts of the country, he 
is a late arrival in the colder climate of Campton, and I 
scarcely expect to see him with many of his fellows 
much before the latter part of May. In spring and 
summer his coloring is a brilliant combination of pure 
lemon yellow and black, The head-cap is black; upper 
and under parts bright yellow; wings black; the should- 
ers and secondary feathers white at the tips; tail black, 
with the inner vanes partly white. In winter the yel- 
low is replaced by an olive gray similar to that of the 
Canary, who is his very near relative.* Coloring of the 
female similar to that of the male in winter. Nest of 
grass, moss, and shreds of bark, lined with thistle-down; 
it is generally lodged in a Y fork of a tree or shrub, ana 
is from six to twenty-five feet above the ground. Egg 
bluish white and unmarked. This Finch is common 
throughout eastern North America. The greater part 
of its diet is grass and weed seeds, 
The song of the Goldfinch is, in part, very similar to 
that of the Canary. Itis replete with the lively humor 
of the bird. One cannot listen to the full song of a 
characteristic singer without laughing involuntarily at 
the unmistakable glee in which it is executed. Only the 
Bobolink can excel the Goldfinch in spontaneity of feel- 
ing, and not even he can cram so much pure fun into 
one short musicalsentence! The Canary splits his higher 
register into a series of ear-piercing trills; the Goldfinch 
does not trill at all! The Bobolink zigzags at a presto 
pace through a cluster of indescribable metallic tones as 
crazy as they arescintillant; there 1s no wild zigzagging 
nor any. scintillating among the notes of the Goldfinch. 
The similarity of the music of the Canary and Goldfinch 
* As a general rule, the so-called olive coloring of a bird is the 
result of an admixture of black and yellow in finest subdivision; 
there is actually no true green in the tint. 
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