WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



sort of food, but must get it from softer cones, for 

 its bill does not seem half as stout. It is erratic 

 in its visits, and its actions outside of the pine- 

 trees are precisely like those of its cousin, the 

 3^ellow-bird. 



All winter you may notice along the field-fences 

 and in the grass}^ plats beside the railway, where 

 weeds have gone to seed, active flocks of small, 

 plainly attired little birds, as cheerful as can be. 

 These are our thistle-loving goldfinches, or yellow- 

 birds, whose simple, sweet song and billow^^ flight 

 were part of the delight of last summer, but which 

 now have exchanged their gay livery of canary- 

 yellow and black for sober undress suits of Quaker 

 drab. The goldfinches, as such, appear with the 

 apple-blossoms, and are seen no later than the 

 gathering of the fruit; but their seeming disap- 

 pearance in autumn, and reappearance in spring, 

 are only changes of plumage. Nevertheless, they 

 are not so abundant in winter as in summer, many 

 moving a little distance southward. The cross- 

 bills are naturally so named, for the tips of their 

 mandibles slide by one another instead of shutting 

 squarely together. Whether or not this peculiarity 

 has been gradually acquired to meet the necessity 

 of a peculiar instrument to twist open the cones 



64 



