60 BRIGHT FEATHERS. 
saliva, and lined with the softest substances. It is small and extremely 
handsome and is generally fixed on a branch of the Lombardy poplar, 
being sometimes secured to one side of a twig only. I have also found 
it in elder bushes,-a few feet above the ground, as well as in other trees, 
The female deposits from four to six eggs, which are white, tinged with 
bluish, and marked at the large end with reddish-brown spots. They 
raise only one brood ina season. The young follow the parents for a 
long time, are fed from the mouch, as canaries are, and are gradually, 
taught to manage this themselves. When it happens that the female is 
disturbed while on her nest, she glides off to a neighboring tree, and 
calls for her mate, pivoting herself on her feet, as above described. 
The male approaches, passes and repasses on the wing at a respectful 
distance from the intruder, in deeper curves than usual, uttering its 
ordinary note, and when the unwelcome visitant has departed, flies with 
joy to his nest, accompanied by the female, who presently resumes her 
occupation.” 
“The food of the American Goldfinch consist chiefly of seeds of the 
hemp, the sun-flower, the lettuce, and various species of the thistle. 
Now and then, during winter, it eats the fruit of the elder.” 
“In ascending along the shores of the Mohawk river, in the month 
of August, I have met more of these pretty birds in the course of a 
day’s walk than any where else ; and whenever a thistle was to be seen 
along either bank of the New York canal, it was ornamented with 
one or more Goldfinches. They tear up the down and withered petals 
of the ripening flowers with ease, leaning downwards upon them, eat off 
the seed, and allow the down to float in the air. The remarkable 
plumage of the male, as well as its song, are at this season very agree- 
able: and so familiar are these birds, that they suffer you to approach 
we te 
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