SPARROW FAMILY. 71 



fice the oriole, with its brilliant plumage and cheerful song, even if 

 it took more fruit than it now does. 



SUMMARY. 



From an esthetic point of view the Bullock oriole has few rivals, 

 and from an economic standpoint it has only one fault — that it does 

 eat some fruit. It is not, however, so abundant that its ravages are 

 likely ever to become serious, and its present numbers should be 

 strictly protected. 



SPARROW FAMILY. 

 (Fringillidae.) 



The sparrow f amity embraces a large number of birds of wide 

 distribution, great diversity of form, and considerable variation in 

 food habits. They are in general characterized by short, stout, 

 conical bills, with which they hull seeds or crush beetles and the 

 toughest skinned fruit. They are the great seed eaters of the feath- 

 ered race. The quantity of seeds of noxious weeds consumed by 

 the host of sparrows, especially in winter, is enormous. While the 

 great bulk of the food of this family consists of vegetable matter, 

 most of the species eat some animal food during the period of repro- 

 duction, and feed their young upon it during the first two weeks of 

 their lives. The sparrows proper, commonly known as finches, 

 linnets, or buntings, are, with a few exceptions, of subdued colors 

 and quiet habits and subsist mostly upon vegetable food. On the 

 other hand, such aberrant forms as grosbeaks and towhees eat a 

 certain amount of animal food throughout the year. 



In California about 60 species and subspecies of sparrows proper 

 have been recorded, besides about a dozen grosbeaks and towhees. 

 Not all of these, however, have such habits as render them of economic 

 importance, and as many of the subspecies do not differ essentially 

 in their food they are treated together. 



WILLOW GOLDFINCH. 



(Astragalinus tristis salicamans.) 



The willow goldfinch, while found over most of the State west of 

 the Sierra, is very locally distributed. Its plumage is beautiful, and 

 its song, while not remarkable for power or volume, is sweet and 

 cheery. The western goldfinches, like the eastern, feed principally 

 upon seeds, and seem to have a special taste for those of thistles. 

 When one finds a ripe thistle head, he at once begins to pick out the 

 seeds and scatter the down, at the same time making a great jubi- 

 lation, as though he enjoyed the fun of seeing the down fly. This 

 habit has earned for them the name of thistle bird. They are 



