Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 
retreat overgrown with tall trees and near a stream, such as is 
dear to the solitary vireo as well when the nesting time ap- 
proaches. High up in the trees we hear its rather sad, persistent 
strain, that is more in harmony with the dim forest than with the 
gay flower garden, where, if the truth must be told, its song is 
both monotonous and depressing. Mr. Bicknell says it is the 
only vireo that sings as it flies. 
American Goldfinch 
(Spinus tristis) Finch family 
Called also: WILD CANARY ; YELLOWBIRD ; THISTLE 
BIRD 
Length — 5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch smaller than the English 
sparrow. 
Male — In simmer plumage : Bright yellow, except on crown of 
head, frontlet, wings, and tail, which are black. Whitish 
markings on wings give effect of bands. Tail with white on 
inner webs. In winter plumage : Head yellow-olive ; no 
frontlet ; back drab, with reddish tinge ; shoulders and throat 
yellow ; soiled brownish white underneath. 
Female — Brownish olive above, yellowish white beneath. 
Range — North America, from the tropics to the Fur Countries and 
westward to the Columbia River and California. Common 
throughout its range. 
Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident, fre- 
quently seen throughout the winter as well. 
An old field, overgrown with thistles and tall, stalky wild 
flowers, is the paradise of the goldfinches, summer or winter. 
Here they congregate in happy companies while the sunshine 
and goldenrod are as bright as their feathers, and cling to the 
swaying, slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest, daintily 
lunching upon the fluffy seeds of thistle blossoms, pecking at the 
mullein-stalks, and swinging airily among the asters and Michael- 
mas daisies ; or, when snow covers the same field with a glis- 
tening crust, above which the brown stalks offer only a meagre 
dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in winter feathers, 
cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. 
At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and 
with peculiar, wavy flight rise and fall through the air, marking 
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