GOLPFINCH. 43 



they present a very pretty appearance, but they are sometimes 

 lined with fine rootlets, horse hair or fern cotton. They meas- 

 ure about three inches in diameter. Eggs usually four, some- 

 times five, rarely six, in number, oval in form, pale bluish 

 green in color, unspotted in all which I have seen. 



General Habits. The Goldfinch is a common resident 

 throughout New England, being scarcely more common at one 

 season than another, but as it moves about in large flocks in 

 spring, autumn and winter, it is not as generally distributed 

 during these seasons as in summer. 



Few birds are better known than the Yellow-birds, as they 

 are popularly called, when in their brilliant gold and black 

 summer livery, at which time they are to be found feeding 

 upon the seeds of thistles by roadsides when they are so un- 

 suspicious as to allow of a quite near approach. 



In winter, however, when in large flocks, at which time 

 they feed upon weed seeds, they are much wilder. 



The Goldfinch breeds late in the season, in July, when the 

 newly ripened seeds of plants will furnish food for its young, 

 which appear in August. The nest is sometimes placed in a 

 willow or often in a maple or other ornamental tree by the 

 road side. 



There is a regular spring and autumnal migration of Gold- 

 finches, at least throughout Eastern North America, but this 

 fact does not appear to affect the numbers which occur in New 

 England, for if the birds which are hatched with us push on 

 south, their places are supplied by others from further north. 

 During some seasons they migrate as far south as southern 

 Florida. 



