Cambridge, Mass.
1910.
July 8.
[July 8, 1910]

  The five male Goldfinches continue their pursuit of the
single [female], day after day, from morning to night, in the garden and through
the jungle, singing rapturously and almost without pause. The female seemed timid and ner-
vous to-day. When she settled on a perch in some leafy tree the
males scattered about in neighboring trees, leaving her unmolested for
a time but singing ceaselessly. Whenever she took flight they follow-
ed her closely, like so many golden stars in the tail of a comet. As
they were chasing her this noon in a blazing sun she sought refuge
in the trumpet vine growing over the old Porter apple stump by the
pond. She entered it near the top and worked downward through the
middle. The five males alighted all over it and fluttered down over
and through the outer leaves, suggesting a shower of golden fruit as
their bright yellow forms shone in the sunlight and glanced among
the foliage. All the while they sang like mad - everyone [every one] of them.
What does it mean? this incessant, never ending courtship, on the
part of so many rival males.