The Goldfinch in Captivity 59 



known as B and the former as A. The evident desire of A 

 for the company of his kind induced me to capture B and 

 place her in his cage and at once he relapsed into former 

 contentment, failing to be influenced by her frantic endeav- 

 ors to escape. A was in passable plumage, but I had seen 

 better examples in general plumage shade, depth of black on 

 wings as in adults and amount of cinnamon edging on wing- 

 coverts, and so I decided to examine more specimens. To 

 accomplish this I used B for a decoy on September 27 and 

 trapped thirteen among the wild sunflowers in Oakwood vil- 

 lage. Twelve were immature birds, and of these I selected 

 the two best appearing males, which become C and D. 



I released B on October 15, but instead of leaving the 

 premises she divided her time between the sunflowers, a 

 cherry tree near the cage, the cage itself and the English 

 sparrows. These pests kept her busy evading their attacks. 

 Soon after regaining her liberty one drove her from sight 

 among the trees in a westerly direction and she no sooner re- 

 turned than another chased her around the house ; in fact, the 

 cage was the only sufe haven of rest, for the sparrows re- 

 garded it with suspicion^an innate wariness that assures 

 their preservation. She frequently tried to get inside the 

 cage and remained so tame I could almost catch her in my 

 hand and, despite all discouragements, remained two days, 

 or until the food supply was exhausted, which consisted of 

 the red sunflower seeds, those of the common yellow variety 

 averaging so large and hard that a goldfinch can not crack 

 them. On the last day I watched her go over the empty 

 heads, looking carefully for stray seeds overlooked by the 

 sparrows. When we remember that she was an adult bird, 

 at least a year old, and that she was caught and released at 

 the same place, her reluctance to leave can not be attributed 

 to confusion, and considering the fact that for several days 

 following their capture all goldfinches make frantic efforts 

 to escape, and then the tension declines so rapidly as to be 

 noticeable, until it is lost in apparent indifference, the prob- 

 able solution is that any latent desire for freedom was dom- 



