SPARROW FAMILY, T1 
fice the oriole, with its brilliant plumage and cheerful song, even if 
it took more fruit than it now does. 
SUMMARY. 
From an esthetic point of view the Bullock oriole has few rivals, 
and from an economic standpoint it has only one fault—that it does 
eat some fruit. It is not, however, so abundant that its ravages are 
likely ever to become serious, and its present numbers should be 
strictly protected. 
SPARROW FAMILY. 
(Fringillide.) 
The sparrow family embraces a large number of birds of wide 
distribution, great diversity of form, and considerable variation in 
food habits. They are in general characterized by short, stout, 
conical bills, with which they hull seeds or crush beetles and the 
toughest skinned fruit. They are the great seed eaters of the feath- 
ered race. The quantity of seeds of noxious weeds consumed by 
the host of sparrows, especially in winter, is enormous. While the 
great bulk of the food of this family consists of vegetable matter, 
most of the species eat some animal food during the period of repro- 
duction, and feed their young upon it during the first two weeks of 
their lives. The sparrows proper, commonly known as finches, 
linnets, or buntings, are, with a few exceptions, of subdued colors 
and quiet habits and subsist mostly upon vegetable food. On the 
other hand, such aberrant forms as grosbeaks and towhees eat a 
certain amount of animal food throughout the year. 
In California about 60 species and subspecies of sparrows proper 
have been recorded, besides about a dozen grosbeaks and towhees. 
Not all of these, however, have such habits as render them of economic 
importance, and as many of the subspecies do not differ essentially 
in their food they are treated together. 
WILLOW GOLDFINCH. 
(Astragalinus tristis salicamans.) 
The willow goldfinch, while found over most of the State west of 
the Sierra, is very locally distributed. Its plumage is beautiful, and 
its song, while not remarkable for power or volume, is sweet and 
cheery. The western goldfinches, like the eastern, feed principally 
upon seeds, and seem to have a special taste for those of thistles. 
When one finds a ripe thistle head, he at once begins to pick out the 
seeds and scatter the down, at the same time making a great jubi- 
lation, as though he enjoyed the fun of seeing the down fly. This 
habit has earned for them the name of thistle bird. They are 
