SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 223 



them by destroying some of the insects that infest the garden. 

 The Goldfinches are almost always in company, and commu- 

 nicate with each other often Avith the most delightful cries ; a 

 common sweet call is ivhetv-ee' , irhew-ee' , and there are many 

 Canary-like tones. The song of the male is sweet, and he 

 more nearly merits the name of Wild Canary than does the 

 Yellow Warbler. At times of unusual transport the singer 

 rises in air and flutters in circles, singing a sweeter and more 

 varied melody than that usually uttered from a perch. 



The food of the Goldfinch is largely that of a typical 

 Sparrow, as it feeds much on the seeds of weeds. Those 

 3eeds that are furnished with down, like the seed of the 

 dandelion and thistle, are nmch sought after by this bird. 

 Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright says that if you desire the pres- 

 ence of Goldfinches in the garden you must plant sunflowers, 

 zinnias, and coreopsis. The seeds of wild clematis, wild 

 sunflowers, and ragweed are much sought by them. Gold- 

 finches feed their young largelj^ on plant lice, caterpillars, 

 small grasshoppers, and beetles. During the spring, when 

 unhampered by fiimily cares, and wandering through fields 

 and orchards, they feed considerably on cankerworms. They 

 sometimes frecjuent grain fields, where they are said to de- 

 vour noxious insects, including the Hessian fly. Goldfinches 

 often feed very largely in winter on the eggs of plant lice ; 

 this has l^een observed many times. Mr. Kh-kland exam- 

 ined the stomach of one of these birds, and found it con- 

 tained two thousand, two hundred and ten eggs of the white 

 birch aphid. Chermes larcifolia is a plant louse that is 

 common on larches. It deposits great numbers of stalked 

 eggs in April and May, which produce the young lice that 

 feed on the trees in summer. Mr. Kirkland saw a flock of 

 over forty Goldfinches going systematically over some in- 

 fested larch trees, beginning at the top of a tree and work- 

 ing gradually down to the lower branches, then repeating 

 the performance on the next tree. They subsist largely in 

 winter on the seeds of birches and those of the button bush, 

 as well as on weed seeds. I have never heard of their trou- 

 bling cultivated fruit or doing any injury except by pilfer- 

 ing sunflower seeds. 



