an THE WESTERN GOLDFINCH. 
stalks and enlivening their quest with much pleasant chatter, now scattering 
in obedience to some whimsical command and sowing the air with their 
laughter. Perchic’-opee or perchic’-ichic’-opee, says every bird as it glides 
down each successive billow of its undulating flight. So enamored are the 
Goldfinches of their gypsy life that it is only when the summer begins to 
wane that they are willing to make particular choice of mates and nesting 
spots. As late as the middle of July one may see roving bands of forty or 
fifty individuals, but by the first of August they are usually settled to the 
task of rearing young. The nesting also appears to be dependent in some 
measure upon the thistle crop. When the weeds are common and the season 
forward, nesting may commence in June; but so long as thistle down is 
scarce or wanting, the birds seem loath to begin. 
Nests are placed in the upright forks of various kinds of saplings, or 
even of growing plants, in which latter case the thistle, again, proves first 
choice. ‘The materials used are the choicest obtainable. Normally the inner 
bark of hemp is employed for warp, and thistle-down for woof and lining, 
so that the whole structure bleaches to a characteristic silver-gray. In the 
absence or scarcity of these, grasses, weeds, bits of leaves, etc., are bound 
together with cobwebs, and the whole felted with other soft plant-downs, 
or even horse-hair. The whole is made fast thruout its depth to the support- 
ing branches, and forms one of the most durable of summer’s trophies. 
From four to six, but commonly five, eggs are laid, and these of a delicate 
greenish blue. Fourteen days are required for hatching; and from the time 
of leaving the nest the youngsters drone babee! babee! with weary iteration, 
all thru the stifling summer day. 
During the nesting season the birds subsist largely upon insects of 
various kinds, especially plant-lice, flies, and the smaller grasshoppers; but at 
other times they feed almost exclusively upon seeds. ‘They are very fond of 
sunflower seeds, returning to a favorite head day after day until the crop 
is harvested. Seeds of the lettuce, turnips, and other garden plants are 
levied upon freely where occasion offers; but thistle seed is a staple article, 
and that is varied by a hundred seeds besides, which none could grudge 
them. 
Thruout the winter the Western Goldfinches are much less in evidence, 
the majority of them having retired to the southland at that season. Those 
which remain are somewhat altered to appearance: the wings and tail show 
much pure white, and the yellow proper is now confined to the throat and 
the sides of the head and neck. He is thus a lighter and a brighter bird 
than his eastern brother. But the western bird has the same merry notes and 
sprightly ways which have made the name of Goldfinch synonymous with 
sunshine. 
