FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: LAWRENCE GOLDFINCH 705 
[Birds presumably of this form are rather common on the San Francisco River 
and its tributaries in summer (Ligon, 1916-1918).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Similar to that of A. p. psaltria. 
Food. —The little animal food it consumes consists of harmful insects, and 
practically all its vegetable food is seeds of useless or harmful weeds. 
General Habits. —In a garden in Santa Barbara where Mr. 
Mailliard studied the attractions of water in a dry country, while an 
Anthony Towhee bathed deliberately in one of the bathing bowls, 
besides a thirsty group of House Finches, “an equally impatient crowd 
of Green-backed Goldfinches” awaited their turn. They would also 
wait in line for a chance to “hang upside down on the faucet and let 
the cooling water fall into their open bills, drop by drop” (1906, 
pp. 45-46). 
In California the Green-back has apparently decreased in numbers 
with the cultivation of the land, but wherever sunflower patches 
occur it is still to be found, and during the winter months often asso¬ 
ciates with House Finches, going about in large flocks. In the Colorado 
Valley in March Doctor Grinnell found large flocks gathered for the 
night “in the central portions of dense, mesquite thickets, where, 
perched from three to four feet above the ground, they were certainly 
safe from marauders; here they sang volubly in chorus until dusk 
settled. During the day they were scattered out over the hills feeding 
on the flower-heads of Perityle emoryi” (1914, p. 165). They were 
also common in palo verde washes. 
LAWRENCE GOLDFINCH: Astragalmus lawrencei (Cassin) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 3.9-4.7 inches, wing 2.6-2.8, tail 1.8-2, 
bill .3. Female: Length (skins) 4-4.5 inches, wing 2.5-2.6, tail 1.7-1.9, bill .3. 
Adult male: Face, front of crown, and throat black; upperparts brownish gray (the back 
sometimes tinged with olive-green) changing to yellowish olive-green on rump; 
tail feathers (except middle pair) with subterminal white patch, wings with coverts 
and quills partly yellow; sides of head and lateral underparts gray, median under¬ 
parts yellow fading to white on belly. Adult female: Similar to adult male but 
without black on head, and colors duller with yellow less distinct. In winter: 
Browner above and colors more subdued. Young: Similar to adult female but 
colors still duller, breast gray with no or almost no yellow, and underparts indis¬ 
tinctly streaked; young males with more white in the tail. 
Range. —Breeds in Sonoran Zones from about latitude 40° in California west 
of Sierra Nevada south into Lower California; winters irregularly in southern 
California and Arizona, and recorded from Lower California and western New 
Mexico. 
State Records. —From its summer home in California, the Lawrence Gold¬ 
finch wanders east during the winter to Arizona, and was once taken, January 20, 
1876, at Fort Bayard (Stephens, 1902, p. 17).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Similar to that of the Arkansas but eggs white . 
