AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 



American This beautiful little Finch is quite as often 



Goldfinch called the Yellow-bird, or Thistle-bird, two 



. * ya names which are due to his coloring and his 



L. 5.10 inches association with ripe thistles the seeds and 

 May isth, or down of which respectively furnish him 

 all the year w j t h f oo( j an( j a so f ^ nest-lining. Although 

 he remains all winter in certain parts of the country, he 

 is a late arrival in the colder climate of Gampton, and I 

 scarcely expect to see him with many of his fellows 

 much before the latter part of May. In spring and 

 summer his coloring is a brilliant combination of pure 

 lemon yellow and black. The head-cap is black; upper 

 and under parts bright yellow; wings black; the should- 

 ers and secondary feathers white at the tips; tail black, 

 with the inner vanes partly white. In winter the yel- 

 low is replaced by an olive gray similar to that of the 

 Canary, who is his very near relative.* Coloring of the 

 female similar to that of the male in winter. Nest of 

 grass, moss, and shreds of bark, lined with thistle-down; 

 it is generally lodged in a Y fork of a tree or shrub, and 

 is from six to twenty-five feet above the ground. Egg 

 bluish white and unmarked. This Finch is common 

 throughout eastern North America. The greater part 

 of its diet is grass and weed seeds. 



The song of the Goldfinch is, in part, very similar to 

 that of the Canary. It is replete with the lively humor 

 of the bird. One cannot listen to the full song of a 

 characteristic singer without laughing involuntarily at 

 the unmistakable glee in which it is executed. Only the 

 Bobolink can excel the Goldfinch in spontaneity of feel- 

 ing, and not even he can cram so much pure fun into 

 one short musical sentence! The Canary splits his higher 

 register into a series of ear-piercing trills; the Goldfinch 

 does not trill at all! The Bobolink zigzags at a presto 

 pace through a cluster of indescribable metallic tones as 

 crazy as they arescintillant; there is no wild zigzagging 

 nor any scintillating among the notes of the Goldfinch. 

 The similarity of the music of the Canary and Goldfinch 



* As a general rule, the so-called olive coloring of a bird Is the 

 result of an admixture of black and yellow In finest subdivision; 

 there is actually no true green in the tint. 



