FINCHES. 185 



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-we 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 

 Canary-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 

 the Great Auk, owing to persecution, and the comparative 

 helplessness of this creature in escaping his enemies, particu- 

 larly man. 



Should the Goldfinches ever cease to exist, let this be their 

 eulogy : the Goldfinches were peculiarly attractive on account 

 of their apparently happy disposition, and their sprightly, ex- 

 pressive twitters, which were never exchanged for the weak 

 and almost mournful notes which many other birds adopt in 



* These exceptions should not have growth of black and gray birches and 

 been made, for in winter the Gold- alders, on the seeds of which they de- 

 finches often frequent the wildest and pend largely for subsistence during the 

 most extensive tracts of woodland, es- colder months. W. B. 

 pecially where there is an abundant 



