68 THE BIRDS OP NEW JERSEY. 



Goldfinch, ^ellowbird, Thistle Bird or Wild 

 Canary. — Length, five inches ; extent, eight inches; 

 bill, two-fifths of an inch; body above and below bright 

 canary yellow; top of the head, wings and tail black, the 

 latter with the inner webs of the feathers white; bill, red- 

 dish brown; Wings and shoulders in early summer banded 

 with white. Female similar but duller in color; never 

 bright yellow. In winter the body plumage is entirely 

 changed. The bird is then brown above and duU white 

 below, with more or less yeUow tints on the head and 

 throat of the male and prominent white edgings to wing 

 and tail. During the spring moult, when the change of 

 plumage occurs, the birds are curiously speckled. 



The nest is built from five to thirty feet from the 

 ground in the crotch of a tree or bush; it is a neat con- 

 trivance, made of fine grasses, bark and moss, lined with 

 thistle-down. Mating begins in June. The eggs are 

 from three to six in number, of a pale blue white, and 

 three-fifths by one-half an inch in size. 



The bird is distributed all over the United States, but is 

 scarcer in winter in the northern parts. It is very plen- 

 tiful in New Jersey. 



Its song lasts until August and is very much like the 

 canary, the call note being ker-chic-chic-chic-a-wee-wee- 

 wee. 



The food of the bird consists of the seeds of trees and 

 bushes or almost any seed-bearing plant; it is i)articularly 

 fond of sunflowers and clematis and in the spring of the 

 year is frequently seen in large numbers feeding on the 

 young pods of the elm trees. 



Goosander. See American Merganser. 



Goose^Canada, or CotnmonWild troose.— Length, 

 thirty-five to forty inches; biU, two inches; head and 

 neck, black, with a large white band across the throat, 

 reaching from ear to ear; back and upper side of wings, 

 slate gray; feathers with Ughter edges; below, pale gray- 



