146 GOLDFINCH 



compact round nest in the apple-tree, the father 

 bird watches us anxiously till he knows that he 

 can trust us near his mate, but when once sure 

 of our good faith, will feed her in our presence. 

 How tenderly he calls out as he comes to her! 

 The quality of his note has changed entirely since 

 spring. Instead of the per-chic-o-ree that told 

 only of his delight in his free life in the air, his 

 call is now a rich, tender dear, dear, dear-ie, and 

 a gentle, homelike dear, dear, dear. Mrs. Mabel 

 Osgood Wright gives us a hint worth taking in 

 the matter of attracting the Goldfinches. She 

 says : "If you wish them to live with you and 

 honor your trees with their nests, plant sunflowers 

 in your garden, zinnias, and coreopsis ; leave a 

 bit of wild grass somewhere about with its mass 

 of compositae. Coax the wild clematis everywhere 

 that it can gain footing ; and in winter, when 

 these joyous birds, gathered in flocks, are roving, 

 hard-pressed for food, scatter some sweepings of 

 bird-seed about their haunts, repaying in this their 

 silent season their summer melody." 



When nesting-time is over, the dainty birds 

 again gather in bands, the males changing their 

 canary-colored coats for the safer but dingy garb 

 of their mates, and so go about through fall and 

 winter doing public service by eating the seeds of 

 the brown weeds that stand above the snow. In 

 one place a flock of a thousand has been seen feed- 

 ing on the seeds of ragweed, effectually limiting 



