OF NEW ENGLAND. 179 



mies ; and, though their powers of flight are not great, I have 

 never seen a hawk or shrike who was sufficiently persistent to 

 exhaust them, and thus to secure his prey. 



To return to those "Yellow Birds" who have passed the 

 summer in Massachusetts, they (or latterly substitutes from 

 the North) are tolerably abundant in September, but less so in 

 October. Sometimes at this season they associate with the 

 sparrows, and feed in asparagus-beds, old vegetable-gardens, 

 and like places. Before October has passed away, they become 

 quite uncommon, and assume many of their winter-habits. 

 Their haunts are much the same throughout the year, and 

 include the whole country, with the exception of the woods, 

 meadows, and swamps. 



(d). The male Goldfinch has a lively and sweet, but not 

 full-toned song, characterized by his ordinary notes, and re- 

 sembling that of the "Canary," his near relation. In listening 

 to it, one may hear harsh notes, and then a sweet che-ive or che- 

 we-we. I have heard it in April, October, and the intervening 

 time, most often in the first-named month and in May. He 

 has also a very sweet and almost pathetic cry, which to me has 

 a singular fascination, but it is not easily to be distinguished 

 from the corresponding notes of the " Red-poll," Siskin, or Ca- 

 nary-bird. Both sexes own a low whistle, heard chiefly in 

 summer, and rarely then, and their characteristic twitters, 

 which these birds commonly utter at every undulation of their 

 flight, and often when perched. Such other sounds as they 

 occasionally produce are less noticeable, and are among those 

 details regarded only by one intimate with birds and with 

 their individual traits. 



In writing this volume, I have been struck with the thought 

 that the biographer of birds has, at least in one respect, a 

 pleasanter task than the biographer of a human friend, for he 

 has never to speak of death ; for, since we regard all of a spe- 

 cies as virtually one being, and rarely regard distinctions be- 

 tween individuals, we are necessarily led to consider them as a 

 perpetual being, though, indeed, instances are known to modern 

 history of the apparent extinction of a race, such as that of 



