N " l l „|.. xx | Btootold, A Study of the House Finch, 17 



niiiii', as he won hi :i young bird, and at such times the notes uttered 

 |p\ the female are peculiar to thi s pari of the nesting habits. Dur- 

 ing August and September the song is at ebb, but start afresh, on a 

 subdued Bcale, in t October. 



The young of the year have frequently been heard trying to sing 

 in late summer, a song small in volume but with unmistakable 

 characteri itics. 



Tool). 



The House Finch will eal almost anything vegetable, though it 

 prefers eed , and experiments with different seed i ihow that hemp 

 i elected to theexclu don of all others. Nevertheless it feeds in our 

 streets and alleys, gathering bread crumbs, eating from pieces of 

 bread, apple , orange , and, In fact, from almo it any piece of table 

 refuse. It will eon nine large quantities of fat, more especially 

 suet. Iii winter when tin- ground is unusually deeply covered by 

 snow, these birds wander far and wide over the prairie and vacant 

 city lots, eating weed seeds, particularly those of the so-called Rus- 

 sian Thistle (Xalxohi lrii</u..t). 1 1 u;r, to I lie writer, a most Satisfy- 

 ing discovery to find that the nestlings were, whenever possible, 

 fed as soon as hatched and thereafter, on dandelion seeds. Each 

 succeeding yr:n- ha i confirmed tbisob ervationand young birds not 

 more than two hours out of (lie egg have been noted with crops 

 lulled to repletion with dandelion leeds. At this period of the 

 bird's growth the neck-skin and the crop covering are almo t wholly 

 transparent, so much so that one can readily distinguish the dan- 

 delion seeds within. The old hinls are to be seen at this time 

 busily gathering these seeds for the nestlings, selecting thos< 

 dandelion blossoms which have matured but are not yet open 

 enough to permit of the seeds being dispersed by the wind. Such 

 blossoms are deftly dissected by the old birds, and each eed taken 



from the bloSSOm, the p;ippus being nipped oil' close to the eed. 



To insure certainty to the correctness of this observation, the 

 writer has examined the crops of several nestlings killed by ESngli h 

 Sparrows, and has been able to say definitely thai the crop content, 

 in these in itances, wa formed wholly of dandelion eed. 

 If not fed on dandelion Beeds, the ne din}' are given uch food 



