20 BIRDS OF THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD* 



THE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 



During all the pleasant days of autumn, when the 

 thistle and sunflower are ripening their seeds, after the 

 songs of the birds have ceased, and we greet them only 

 as friends after the concert is over, we hear the plaintive 

 chirping of the Hemp-Birds, and see the frequent flashing 

 of their golden plumage among the thistles and golden- 

 rods. Like butterflies they are seen in all the open past- 

 ures and meadows that abound in compound flowers, not in 

 flocks, but scattered in great numbers, and always, when 

 flying from one field to another, uttering their singularly 

 plaintive but cheerful cry. This is so sweetly modulated 

 that, when many of them are assembled, the songs of 

 early summer seem to be temporarily revived. They are 

 very familiar and active, always flitting about our flower- 

 gardens when they abound in marigolds and asters. 



The Hemp-Bird bears considerable resemblance to the 

 Canary in his habits and the notes of his song. Being 

 deficient in compass and variety, he cannot be ranked 

 with the finest of our songsters. But he has great sweet- 

 ness of tone, and is equalled by few birds in the rapidity 

 of his execution. His note of complaint is also like that 

 of the Canary, and is heard at almost all times of the 

 year. He utters, when flying, a rapid series of notes 

 during the repeated undulations of his flight, and they 

 seem to be uttered with each effort he makes to rise. 



The female does not build her nest before the first 

 broods of the Kobin and the Song-Sparrow have flown. 

 Mr. Augustus Fowler, of Danvers, thinks, from his ob- 

 servation of the habits of these birds when feeding 

 their young, that the cause of this delay is " that they 

 would be unable to find in the spring those milky seeds 

 which are the necessary food for their young," and takes 

 occasion to allude to that beneficent law of Nature pro- 



