CHAPTER VII 



Goldfinch: Astragalinus Tristis Pdllidus 



IN BUSHES 



MY FIRST friendship with the Gold- 

 finches began in my mother's garden. 

 That possessive evokes a smile as I 

 write it. Certainly father and the 

 boys made that garden, yet it was 

 always spoken of as mother's. It was 

 as much a personal possession as her 

 dress or her dishes. I smile again as 

 I think of the garden. There was 

 not a weed in it. The walks were 

 smooth and broad, the beds held in 

 shape by neatly staked boards. There 

 were radishes, onions and lettuce, 

 beets, cabbage and tomatoes, a herb 

 bed, a strawberry bed, long rows of 

 blackberry and raspberry bushes, cur- 

 rant and gooseberry, a grape arbour, 

 and leek and garlic tucked away under 



some vines; yet the impression one had from the highway, the 

 dooryard, or gate, was of a flower bed, for flowering shrubs filled 

 the corners; hardy perennials bordered the front and side fences, 

 over which clambered creeper, honeysuckle, and cypress vines; and 

 annuals bordered and intermingled with the vegetables of each 



93 



FEMALE GOLDFINCH ENTERING 

 NEST 



