Goldfinches Feeding on Fir Cones. 169 



occurrence anywhere. Yet this one^ guided by some in- 

 explicable instinct, or, more likely, a reasoning intelli- 

 gence, had so soon discovered the remote speck of water, 

 and to its misfortune the fish in it as well ! 



GOLDFINCHES FEEDING ON FIR CONES. 



It is cold-blooded cruelty, absolutely bird murder, to 

 use the gun upon a goldfinch ; yet I, who say so, have 

 been guilty of this very crime, and but a short while ago ; 

 not wantonly, the reader may well be assured, but in the 

 cause of science, if that be any palliation. It was done 

 to verify a fact lately communicated to me by a lady 

 friend, and with which I had not previously been ac- 

 quainted. She had seen a flock of goldfinches in a grove 

 of Scotch firs pecking away at the cones. I suggested 

 " crossbills," though doubtfully, knowing the lady pos- 

 sessed of ornithological knowledge, but knowing also that 

 these birds with the beak awry are frequently observed 

 in flocks among our fir plantations. But no ; she was 

 sure that those she had seen pecking at the cones were 

 goldfinches. And so am I now, after the ruthless murder 

 committed — a veritable thistle-feeder [Fringilla carduelis), 

 shot down out of a Scotch fir, where it had been gorg- 

 ing, its crop found nearly full of seeds it had contrived 

 to extract from the cones. 



