THE GOLDFINCH 



ABOUT the most noticeable bird of August in 

 New York and New England is the yellowbird, 

 or goldfinch. This is one of the last birds to nest, 

 seldom hatching its eggs till late in July. It seems 

 as if a particular kind of food were required to 

 rear its brood, which cannot be had at an earlier 

 date. The seed of the common thistle is appar- 

 ently its mainstay. There is no prettier sight at 

 this season than a troop of young goldfinches, 

 led by their parents, going from thistle to thistle 

 along the roadside and pulling the ripe heads to 

 pieces for the seed. The plaintive call of the 

 young is one of the characteristic August sounds. 

 Their nests are frequently destroyed, or the eggs 

 thrown from them, by the terrific July thunder- 

 showers. Last season a pair had a nest on the 

 slender branch of a maple in front of the door 

 of the house where I was staying. The eggs 

 were being deposited, and the happy pair had a 

 loving conversation about them many times each 

 day, when one afternoon a very violent storm 

 arose which made the branches of the trees stream 

 out like wildly disheveled hair, quite turning over 

 those on the windward side, and emptying the 



