A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 617 
this bare November landscape, I am reminded of the incredible 
phenomenon of small birds in winter, that erelong, amid the 
cold, powdery snow, as it were a fruit of the season, will come 
twittering a flock of delicate, crimson-tinged birds, Lesser 
Redpolls, to sport and feed on the seeds and buds just ripe for 
them on the sunny side of a wood, shaking down the powdery 
snow there in their cheerful feeding, as if it were high mid- 
summer to them. . . . They greet the hunter and the 
chopper in their furs. Their Maker gave them the last touch, 
and launched them forth the day of the Great Snow. He 
made this bitter, imprisoning cold, before which man quails, 
but He made at the same time these warm and glowing 
creatures to twitter and be at home in it. He said not only 
let there be Linnets in winter, but Linnets of rich plumage 
and pleasing twitter, bearing summer in their natures. . . . 
I am struck by the perfect confidence and success of Nature.” 
American Goldfinch: Spinus tristis. R. 
Wild Canary, Thistle-bird, Yellowbird 
Length: 4.80-5.20 inches. 
Male: Body, all but wings, tail, and frontlet, a clear gamboge-yellow. 
Frontlet black. Wings black, varied with white. Tail blackish 
with spots of white on interior of quills. Bill and feet flesh- 
colored. In September the black frontlet of the male disappears, 
his colors pale, and he resembles the female and young. In April 
the spring moult begins, and often is not completed until middle 
May. 
Female: Above brownish olive, below yellowish. 
Song: A wild, sweet, Canary-like warbling. Call note, “ Ker-chee- 
wee-chewee-chewee, tira-lira-lira-lee ! ” 
Season: Resident in this section, but the numbers increase in May 
and diminish in October. 
Nest: Round, very neat, and compact; of grass and moss, lined with 
seed and plant down, usually in a branch crotch. 
Eggs: 4-6, blue-white, generally unmarked. 
The American Goldfinch, known under many titles, is as 
familiar as the Robin, Catbird, and Wren, but its beauty and 
winning ways always seem new and interesting. In southern 
Connecticut, as well as in locations further north and east, 
it is resident, and is revealed through its various disguises of 
plumage by its typical dipping flight. 
Scatter some canary seed or seedheads of sunflowers, 
