68 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



these Goldfinches seem to be bounding along with 

 the motion of sea waves. Many are the dainty 

 pictures of Goldfinch life that come readily to 

 mind — a Goldfinch and his mate on the tassels 

 of a summer cornfield; a Goldfinch making his 

 exquisite toilet on a bean vine just outside my 

 window before sunrise, on several mornings in 

 succession; Goldfinches on the thistles or the wild 

 lettuce of an old field, pecking seeds; a male 

 bright as a flower, hopping alone among the gar- 

 den beds; Goldfinches swaying on the slender 

 culms of nearly ripened oats, picking out the 

 milky grains; a single beauty .on the top twig 

 of a peach tree, standing on his head to strip it 

 of sap-sucking aphides, and righting himself to 

 sing like a Canary between mouthfuls. Our 

 whole year would lose a jewel if this bright com- 

 pany should leave us by any ill chance; they 

 enrich and gladden the days of every season. 



ROBIN 



In Tennessee and southward we hardly know 

 the Eobin as a spring songster; he is more con- 

 spicuous as a winter visitor, appearing in flocks 

 that come and go erratically over their feeding 

 grounds. The Robin resident from Georgia to 

 the Carolinas is less vividly colored than the 

 normal type, and is usually written as a separate 

 species — the Southern Robin. 



