SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 223 
them by destroying some of the insects that infest the garden. 
The Goldfinches are almost always in company, and commu- 
nicate with each other often with the most delightful cries ; a 
common sweet call is whew-ee’, whew-ee', and there are many 
Canary-like tones. The song of the male is sweet, and he 
more nearly merits the name of Wild Canary than does the 
Yellow Warbler. At times of unusual transport the singer 
rises in air and flutters in circles, singing a sweeter and more 
varied melody than that usually uttered from a perch. 
The food of the Goldfinch is largely that of a typical 
Sparrow, as it feeds much on the seeds of weeds. Those 
seeds that are furnished with down, like the seed of the 
dandelion and thistle, are much sought after by this bird. 
Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright says that if you desire the pres- 
ence of Goldfinches in the garden you must plant sunflowers, 
zinnias, and coreopsis. The seeds of wild clematis, wild 
sunflowers, and ragweed are much sought by them. Gold- 
finches feed their young largely on plant lice, caterpillars, 
small grasshoppers, and beetles. During the spring, when 
unhampered by family cares, and wandering through fields 
and orchards, they feed considerably on cankerworms. They 
sometimes frequent grain fields, where they are said to de-. 
vour noxious insects, including the Hessian fly. Goldfinches 
often feed very largely in winter on the eggs of plant lice ; 
this has been observed many times. Mr. Kirkland exam- 
ined the stomach of one of these birds, and found it con- 
tained two thousand, two hundred and ten eggs of the white 
birch aphid. Chermes larcifolia is a plant louse that is 
common on larches. It deposits great numbers of stalked 
eggs in April and May, which produce the young lice that 
feed on the trees in summer. Mr. Kirkland saw a flock of 
over forty Goldfinches going systematically over some in- 
fested larch trees, beginning at the top of a tree and work- 
ing gradually down to the lower branches, then repeating 
the performance on the next tree. They subsist largely in 
winter on the seeds of birches and those of the button bush, 
as well as on weed seeds. I have never heard of their trou- 
bling cultivated fruit or doing any injury except by pilfer- 
ing sunflower seeds. 
