14 
YELLOW BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH. 
the titmouse. From these circumstances, as well as from 
their colour, they are very generally known, and pass by 
various names expressive of their food, colour, &c. such as 
thistle bird, lettuce bird, salad bird, yellow bird, &c. The 
gardeners, who supply the city of Philadelphia with vegetables, 
often take them in trap-cages, and expose them for sale in 
market. They are easily familiarized to confinement, and 
feed with seeming indifference a few hours after being taken. 
The great resemblance which the yellow bird bears to the 
canary has made many persons attempt to pair individuals of 
the two species together. An ingenious French gentleman, 
who resides in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, assured me, that he 
had tried the male yellow bird with the female canary, and 
the female yellow bird with the male canary, but without 
effect, though he kept them for several years together, and 
supplied them with proper materials for building. Mr Hassey 
of New York, however, who keeps a great number of native 
as well as foreign birds, informed me, that a yellow bird 
paired with a canary in his possession, and laid eggs, but did 
not hatch, which he attributed to the lateness of the season. 
These birds were seen by Mr M‘Kenzie, in his route 
across the continent of North America, as far north as lat. 54° ; 
they are numerous in all the Atlantic States north of the 
Carolinas ; abound in Mexico, and are also found in great 
numbers in the savannahs of Guiana. 
The seeds of the lettuce, thistle, hemp, &c. are their 
favourite food, and it is pleasant to observe a few cf them at 
work in a calm day, detaching the thistle down, in search of 
the seeds, making it fly in clouds around them. The figure 
on the plate represents this bird of its natural size. 
belt round its body, and another, equally light, fastened to a little bucket, 
which was kept by its weight in the water : it was also obliged to supply itself 
with food, by being obliged to draw towards its bill a little chariot filled with 
seeds. 
Female is represented on Plate VI. of Vol. IIL being part of Bonaparte’s 
continuation.— Ed. 
