THE FINCHES 201 



account, the damage he may do in the vegetable beds 

 should be forgiven him. 



Grain and seeds and berries are his other food. His 

 strong broad beak enables him to break up and enjoy the 

 hard sorts as well as the soft. But he is also partial to 

 the wayside weeds that give him no trouble and can be 

 stripped of their seeds without any one objecting — 

 groundsel and chickweed and the like. When autumn 

 sunlight broods over our gardens, and 



"Heavily hangs the broad sun-flower," 



the ripening seeds of its great yellow disc are a feast 

 which the Greenfinch loves exceedingly. 



A little later when these garden glories are cut down 

 and cleared away, he has to content himself with wild 

 Nature's feast which is always spread — the scarlet hips 

 of the wild rose, and the dark red hawthorn berries. 

 And later still, when the snows cover up so many 

 of the lowlier weeds that yield him food, he leaves 

 the open country-side and pays visits to the farms and 

 cottages. 



" I have seen a flock of Greenfinches," says a naturalist 

 friend of mine, '' hundreds in number, pass like a bright 

 green cloud as they flew by with the winter sunshine on 

 their wings." That is the time when you may see their 

 soft green and yellow plumage among the sparrows and 

 other birds in the rick yard, all of them busily picking up 

 the grain and the hay seed that lie waiting for these 

 winged gleaners. 



The GROSBEAK himself, or HAWFINCH, as he is 

 commonly called, resembles the Greenfinch only in his 

 large strong beak. His plumage is far less pleasing, 

 though in a bright light the shades of reddish-brown 



