YELLOW-BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH. 7 
W. lon. 141° 46’, acpording to his estimation, where he observed 
several species of birds nat known in Siberia ; and one, 1n particular, 
described by Catesby, under the name of the Blue Jay.* Mr. William 
Bartram informs me, that they are numerous in the peninsula of Flor- 
ida, and that he also found them at Natchez, on the Mississippi. 
Captains Lewis and Clark, and their intrepid companions, in their 
memorable expedition across the continent of North America to the 
Pacific Ocean, continued to see Blue Jays for six hundred miles up the 
Missouri.t From these accounts it follows, that this species occupies, 
generally or partially, an extent of country stretching upwards of 
seventy degrees from east to west, and more than thirty degrees from 
north to south; though, from local circumstances, there may be inter- 
mediate tracts, in this immense range, which they seldom visit. 
YELLOW-BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH.—FRINGILLA TRISTIS. 
Fie. 2, 
Linn. Syst. i. p. 320.— Carduelis Americana, Briss. iii. p- 6, 3. —Le Chardonnerat 
jaune, Buff. iv. p. 112. Pl. end. 202, fo. 2.— American Goldfinch, Arct. Zool. ii. 
0. 242, — Edw. 274, — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 288, 57. Id. Sup. p. 166.— Bartram, 
p. 290, — Peale’s Museum, No. 6344. 
‘ 
CARDUELIS AMERICANA. — Evwaros. 
New York Siskin, Penn. Arct. Zool. p. 372. (Male chan ing his plumage, and the 
male in his winter dress taken for female, auct. wains.) — Fringilla tristis, 
Bonap. Syn. p. 111, No. 181.—Carduelis Americana, North. Zool. it, p. 268. 
Tas bird is four inches and a half in length, and eight inches in 
extent, of a rich lemon yellow, fading into white towards the rump 
and vent. The wings and tail are black, the former tipped and edged 
with white; the interior webs of the latter are also white; the fore 
part of the head is black, the bill and legs of a reddish cinnamon 
color. This is the summer dress of the male; but in the month of 
September the yellow gradually changes to a brown olive, and the 
male and female are then nearly alike. They build a very neat and 
delicately-formed little nest, which, they fasten to the twigs of an 
apple-tree, or to the strong, branching stalks of hemp, covering it on 
the outside with pieces of lichen, which they find on the trees and 
fences; these they glue together with their saliva, and afterwards line 
the inside with the softest downy substances they can procure. The 
female lays five eggs, of a dull white, thickly marked at the greater 
end; and they generally raise two broods in a season. The males do 
not arrive at their perfect plumage until the succeeding spring’; want- 
ing, during that time, the black on the head, and the white on the 
wings being of a cream color. In the month of April, they begin to 
* See STELLER’s Journal, apud Pallas. 
+ This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 
