The Willow Goldfinch 



Four or five eggs of a delicate bluish green 

 constitute a set, and the female broods for four- 

 teen days. A like time or less is required by the 

 babies before they reach maturity; and when 

 they leave the nest they drone babee! babee! with 

 weary iteration until all but their doting parents 

 are driven frantic. The fledglings 

 are quickly inducted into the mys- 

 teries of what to eat and how to 

 rustle it; but they much pre- 

 fer to be waited on by their 

 parents. Most of the young- 

 sters, as a consequence, 

 are thoroughly"spoiled," 

 and the assiduity dis- 

 played by an overwork- 

 ed female Goldfinch 

 tending a batch of over- 

 grown squealers reminds 

 us, all too surely, of 

 "home and mother." 



During the nesting season these birds subsist partly upon insects, 

 chiefly bugs, flies, and caterpillars; but at other times they feed almost 

 exclusively upon seeds. They are very fond of sunflower seeds, returning 

 day after day till the crop is harvested. Seeds of the lettuce plant, 

 turnip, and other garden vegetables, are levied upon freely where occasion 

 offers; but thistle seed is a staple article; and the steady consumption of 

 weed seeds, such as alfilaria, groundsel, and tarweed, lifts this bird into 

 the class of highly useful species. 



In the winter season Willow Goldfinches are everywhere very much 

 less in evidence. They do not migrate, apparently, but they take on a 

 duller plumage, and they live more quietly. Just as the impression gets 

 about that they are gone, one stumbles upon a large company stealing 

 about in the tops of the sycamore trees, or else sunning themselves at 

 the edge of a ceanothus patch. If too much disturbed, they will perchic 

 perchic opee as of yore; but it is a pale reflection of midsummer glory. 



Taken at Los Colibris Photo by the Author 



'THEY ARE VERY FOND OF 

 SUNFLOWER SEEDS" 



! / 



igo 



