76 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



XX. 



YELLOW-BIRD ; AMERICAN GOLDFINCH ; THISTLE- 

 BIRD. 



THROW yourself down among the buttercups 

 and daisies some cloudless summer day and look 

 up at the sky till its wondrous blueness thrills 

 through you as an ecstacy. Then catch your 

 breath and listen, while out of the air 'eomes a 

 clear fluid note of rapture. All ! there is the 

 little goldfinch a bit of the sun's own gold 

 sauntering through the air, rising and falling to 



/- r*^ 

 the rhythm of his own f f I ^his wav an ^ 



dee-ree. dee-ee-ree. 



that he flits, at each call fluttering his wings and 

 then letting himself float down on the air. Spring 

 up from the meadow and follow him till down 

 from* the blue sky he comes to alight airily on a 

 pink thistle -top. Then as he bends over and 

 daintily plucks out the tiny seeds that would soon 

 have been ballooning through the air, you can ad- 

 mire the glossy black cap, wings, and tail that 

 touch off his slender gold form. 



Who would ever take this fairy-like beauty for 

 a cousin of our plain chippy and song sparrow ? 

 And yet his bill and size and family traits 

 are the same. Pigeon-hole No. 4 was marked 

 "finches, sparrows, etc.," and he is one of the 



