FRIENDS IX FEATHERS 



Their song and call notes strongly suggest the Canary; not 

 that they either warble or trill, merely the sounds are alike, the 

 Goldfinch notes being full, clear, melodious, and touched with the 

 zest and joke of life to a degree not even equalled by the Bobolink. 

 Bob gives a dizzying outpouring of notes rolling in a jumble, that 

 sets the listener straining his ears, his mouth agape in the attempt 

 to follow and interpret, but little gold bird never fails to make you 

 smile, even to laugh aloud at his joy in life. Riding air waves 

 he comes sailing toward you crying in full rising and falling notes 

 of pure melody: "Pt'seet! Pt'seet!" Then his full strain: 

 "Put seed in it! Put seed in it!" Always ending with the 

 question: "Do you see me?" 



I saw her. So when she alighted on the edge of her nest, a 

 little olive greenish bird, of leafy shading like the foliage around 

 her, I was ready, and as she leaned to closely inspect her eggs, I 

 secured this likeness. Her gold-and-black mate must have been 

 far afield, for I did not see him. The light was in the west. 

 When I returned the following afternoon to try for a better pic- 

 ture of her and one of the eggs, I was disappointed to find that 

 browsing cattle rushing among the bushes to scrape flies from 

 their sides, had so bent and twisted this bush that the nest lay 

 torn and trampled on the ground. 



A few days later Bob told me about a nest he had found in the 

 crotch of some ash bushes in a ditch, at the foot of the levee, at the 

 east end of the Wabash River bridge, on the north side, on the 

 Shimp farm. I could work on the nest for about one hour in 

 the morning, as the light fell full on it only at that time, while the 

 young were already hatched, pinfeathering, and able to stand and 

 call for food. I set up a camera far enough away that they would 

 see it and yet not be disturbed by it, left it there for a long time, 

 then moved it closer, and finally before leaving, trimmed and tied 

 back the bushes all I dared, not to expose the nest. The following 



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