Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



retreat overgrown with tall trees and near a stream, such as is 

 dear to the solitary vireo as well when the nesting time ap- 

 proaches. High up in the trees we hear its rather sad, persistent 

 strain, that is more in harmony with the dim forest than with the 

 gay flower garden, where, if the truth must be told, its song is 

 both monotonous and depressing. Mr. Bicknell says it is the 

 only vireo that sings as it flies. 



Called also: 



American Goldfinch 



(Spinus tristis) Finch family 



WILD CANARY ; YELLOWBIRD ; THISTLE 

 BIRD 



Length — 5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch smaller than the English 

 sparrow. 



Male — In summer plumage : Bright yellow, except on crown of 

 head, frontlet, wings, and ^o\\, which are black. Whitish 

 markings on wings give effect of bands. Tail with white on 

 inner webs, hi winter plumage : '^ead yellow-olive ; no 

 frontlet ; back drab, with reddish tinge ; shoulders and throat 

 yellow ; soiled brownish white underneath. 



Female — Brownish olive above, yellowish white beneath. 



Hange — N. 'th America, from the tropics to the Fur Countries and 

 westward to the Columbia River and California. Common 

 throughout its range. 



Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident, fre- 

 quently seen throughout the winter as well. 



An old field, overgrown with thistles and tall, stalky wild 

 flowers, is the paradise of the goldfinches, summer or winter. 

 Here they congregate in happy companies while the sunshine 

 and goldenrod are as bright as their feathers, and cling to the 

 swaying, slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest, daintily 

 lunching upon the fluffy seeds of thistle blossoms, pecking at the 

 mullein-stalks, and swinging airily among the asters and Michael- 

 mas daisies ; or, when snow covers the same field with a glis- 

 tening crust, above which the brown stalks offer only a meagre 

 dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in winter feathers, 

 cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. 



At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and 

 with peculiar, wavy flight rise and fall through the air, marking 



190 



