The Lawrence Goldfinch 



In view of this almost oriental fecundity, it is doubly fortunate that 

 the economics of the Green-backed Goldfinch is above reproach. Ninety- 

 six per cent of the bird's food consists of weed-seed. Among the various 

 weeds which supply its wants, the Napa Thistle (Centaurea melitensis) 

 stands supreme. It would seem to be feat enough to pluck these tiny 

 seeds one by one, with their corrugated sides and bristling tufts, but the 

 Goldfinch cracks each brittle shell and, aided no doubt by its tongue, 

 extracts with consummate skill the starchy kernel. As an instrument of 

 precision the Goldfinch bill is hard to beat. And if it were not for the 

 gentle Goldfinch, even thirty million of him, our fields would all go to 

 thistle seed, and we might have to eat thistles for bread. Hail, then, to 

 his increasing millions! And if good old Doctor Cooper — peace to his 

 ashes! — ever does take a notion to reincarnate, we will undertake to 

 show him a Green-back's nest. 



No. 31 



Lawrence's Goldfinch 



A. O. U. No. 531. Astragalinus lawrencei (Cassin). 



Description. — Adult male in spring: General color neutral gray, paling on 

 underparts posteriorly; pileum, face, and throat, narrowly, black; breast dark yellow 

 (nearly pyrite yellow), everywhere sharply outlined against the surrounding gray; 

 rump yellow; back touched with yellow centrally; the wings black, heavily edged with 

 yellow; the tertials bordered with white; tail black, the three or four outermost pairs 

 of feathers heavily blotched with subterminal white on inner web. Bill light; feet 

 brownish. Adult male in autumn: As in spring, but back and sides of hind neck 

 brownish olive. Adult female in spring: Like male in spring but without black on 

 head and throat; duller. In autumn: Above brownish olive. Young birds are like 

 adult female in autumn, but yellow element is almost or quite confined to wing, where 

 also largely replaced by buffy brown edgings; breast faintly streaked. Length of 

 adult about 127 (5.00) ; wing 68 (2.68) ; tail 48 (1.89) ; bill 8 (.31) ; tarsus 13 (.51). Fe- 

 male slightly smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; black chin and throat of male distinctive; 

 black, yellow, and gray in contrast; yellow on center of breast, in contrast with sur- 

 rounding gray, fairly distinctive for female; of irregular and local occurrence. 



Nesting. — Nest: A rather loosely woven cup of highly varied materials, — 

 grasses, wool, weed-stems, and feathers; placed at any height in cypress tree, or at 

 moderate height (2 to 15 feet) in weeds, artemisia, elderberry bush, or small tree, as 

 live oak. Eggs: 4 or 5, rarely 6, pure white. Av. of 18 eggs in M. C. O. coll: 15.5 x 10.9 

 (.61 x .43). Season: April, May, one brood. Extreme dates: Shandon, April 8, 

 1916, 5 fresh eggs; Claremont, July 5, 1903, 4, inc. begun. 



General Range. — California and northern Lower California; in winter east to 

 Arizona (but chiefly at Colorado Valley points) and New Mexico (Fort Bayard, — 

 Stephens, MS.). 



197 



