274 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



the land, were there not some means of waste. It 

 is pleasing to watch the goldfinch in the months 

 of July and August, when the very air is full 

 of floating thistle down, 



*' Suddenly halting now — a lifeless stand ! 

 Then starting off again with freak as sudden. 

 In all its sportive wanderings, all the while, 

 Making report of an invisible breeze 

 That was its wings, its chariot, and its horse, 

 Its playmate^ — rather say, its moving soul." 



It is pleasing to watch the bird's joy as it sits 

 pecking at the thistle tuft. Happily, though the 

 wind is bearing away so many of the seeds, and 

 casting all which arc destined to prove fertile on 

 their fitting soils, yet many are left in tufts, to 

 show where the rich purple flower has been ; and 

 quite late in the autumn, the goldfinch may be 

 seen flitting about the hedges, twitting and peck- 

 ing at the thistle do^vn. The French call the 

 bird Chardonneret, from Chardon a thistle. The 

 scientific appellation, Cardiielis, is also fonned 

 from Carduus, the botanic name of a genus of 

 the plant ; and the bird is besides in some countiy- 

 places called Thistle-finch, and is the Distelfinh of 

 the Germans. Our country people also term this 



