76 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.' 



/ 



one bird that was shot contained a soft mass of such food. The habit 

 of feeding on thistles, which has given the species its common name 

 of 'thistle bird,' was well exemplified one day in August, 1898. A 

 thistle on which a goldfinch had been feeding was examined and on its 

 leaves and the ground beneath 67 seeds were counted. They appeared 

 perfect, but close inspection showed a slit through which the meaty 

 kernel had been deftly removed. On the 30th and 31st of August, 

 18&8^ the goldfinch was seen eating seeds of the sow thistle and of wild 

 lettuce. September 7, 1896, six birds were banqueting on seeds of 

 beggar-ticks which had appropriated several square rods in an outfield 

 and threatened to give trouble in subsequent seasons. Four young- 

 sters, so recently fledged that they allowed me to approach within 10 

 feet of them, gave an excellent opportunity (September 21, 1896) to 

 observe how goldfinches feed on ragweed. Often the}^ would all 

 alight on the same plant at once, then they would wrench off the seeds, 

 crack them, extract the meat, and drop the shell, their actions resem- 

 bling those of a canary at its seed cup. In one instance three alighted 

 on a very small plant, which under their weight bent to the ground. 

 Nothing daunted, they clung to the sprays, heads downward, until 

 they touched the earth, then, shifting their position so as to hold the 

 stems under their feet, went on with their meal. 



About the middle of November, 1900, a flock of 300 goldfinches were 

 noted perching in luxuriant ragweed on truck land of the Hungerford 

 farm, industriously stripping off seeds. The work of such an army 

 must have caused decided limitation of the next year's growth. During 

 the third week of February, 1900, a flock of about 50 were seen in a tangle 

 of trumpet creeper on the edge of the bluff (PI. VI, fig. 1). They were 

 clinging to the long, parti j^ opened pods, extracting seeds, and the refuse 

 of their meal made a continual flurry of floating empty seed wings. Dur- 

 ing four minutes six birds that were somewhat isolated dropped 57 of 

 these seed wings. Feeding on the trumpet creeper proved to be 

 habitual with the goldfinch and must have prevented many seeds from 

 spreading inland over lot 3 before the prevailing river winds. The 

 plant is a mischievous weed at Marshall Hall. In 1898 it choked out 

 the oats in one part of a patch and twined around nearly half the corn- 

 stalks in a field near the river. It was bad in truck plots during 1899 

 and 1900, and always makes the breaking up of old pastures a serious 

 undertaking for man and horse. It may be mentioned in passing that 

 the downy woodpecker has also been seen picking out these winged 

 seeds, as well as taking mullein and ragweed seeds from the stalk. 



Purple Finch.— The purple finch, though it habitually feeds in trees, 

 often destroys seeds of noxious plants. On the 16th and 16th of 

 November, 1900, a thicket of giant ragweed that had made a 10-foot 

 growth in the Bryan kitchen garden (PI. XIV, fig. 1) was gay with a 

 flock of 30 finches that hung on the sprays while they stripped off the 



