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THE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 
The specific title of Ccelebs , which is given to the Chaffinch, signifies a bachelor, and 
refers to the annual separation of the sexes, which takes place in the autumn, the females 
departing to some other region, and the males congregating in vast multitudes, consoling 
themselves as they best can by the pleasures of society for the absence of the gentler portion 
of the community. Very large flocks of these birds appear towards the end of autumn, and 
seem at first to be wholly composed of females. It is, however, more than probable that they 
consist of the females together with their young families of both sexes, and that the immature 
males have not as yet assumed their perfect plumage. The flocks are generally seen about 
hedge-rows and stubble-fields ; and if the weather should be very severe, they adjourn to the 
vicinity of human habitations, haunting the gardens and farm-yards, and often rivalling the 
sparrows in their boldness of demeanor. 
The note of this bird is a merry kind of whistle, and the call-note is very musical and 
ringing, somewhat resembling the word “pinck,” which has therefore been often applied to 
the bird as its provincial name. 
The nest of the Chaffinch is one of the prettiest and neatest. It is deeply cup -shaped, 
and the materials of which it is composed are moss, wool, hair, and lichens, the latter sub- 
stances being always stuck profusely over the surface, so as to give it a resemblance to the 
bough on which it has been built. The nest is almost invariably made in the upright fork of 
a branch, just at its junction with the main stem or bough from which it sprang, and is so 
beautifully worked into harmony with the bark of the particular tree on which it is placed, 
that it escapes the eye of any but a practised observer. Great pains are taken by the female 
in making her nest, and the structure occupies her about three weeks. The eggs are from 
four to five in number, and their color is pale brownish buff, decorated with several largish 
spots and streaks of very dark brown. 
The color of tins pretty bird is as follows : At the base of the beak the feathers are jetty 
black, and the same hue, but with a slight dash of brown, is found on the wings and the 
greater wing-coverts. The top of the head and back of the neck are slaty-gray, the back is 
chestnut, and the sides of the head, the chin, throat, and breast are bright ruddy chestnut, 
fading into a colder tint upon the abdomen. The larger wing-coverts are tipped with white, 
the lesser coverts are entirely of the same hue, and the tertials are edged with yellowish white. 
The tail has the two central feathers grayish black, the next three pairs black, and the remain- 
ing feathers variegated with black and white. The total length of the bird is six inches. The 
female is colored something like the male, but not so brilliantly. 
Of all the Finches, none is so truly handsome as the Goldfinch, a bird whose bright 
yellow orange hues suffer but little even when it is placed in close proximity to the more gaudy 
Finches of tropical climates. Like the chaffinch, it is spread over the whole of Europe, and 
may be seen in great numbers feeding on the white thistledown. There are few prettier sights 
than to watch a cloud of Goldfinches fluttering along a hedge, chasing the thistledown as it is 
whirled away by the breeze, and uttering all the while their sweet merry notes. 
The birds are not very shy, and by lying quietly in the hedge the observer may watch 
them as they come flying along, ever and anon perching upon the thistle tops, dragging out a 
beakful of down, and biting off the seeds with infinite satisfaction. Sometimes a Goldfinch 
will make a dart at a thistle or burdock, and without perching snatch several of the seeds 
from their bed, and then alighting on the stem, will run up it as nimbly as a squirrel, and 
peck away at the seeds, quite careless as to the attitude it may be forced to adopt. These 
beautiful little birds are most useful to the farmer, for they not only devour multitudes of 
insects during the spring months, but in the autumn they turn their attention to the thistle, 
burdock, groundsel, plantain, and other weeds, and work more effectual destruction than the 
farmer could hope to attain with all his laborers. Several Goldfinches may often be seen at 
one time on the stem and top of a single thistle, and two or three are frequently busily engaged 
on the same plant of groundsel. 
The American Goldfinch (Astragalinus tristis ) is a pretty and familiar little bird. In 
