American Goldfinch 
125 
lardias? If so, every goldfinch in your neigh- 
bourhood knows it and hastens there to feed on 
the seeds of these plants as fast as they form, 
so that you need expect to save none for next 
spring’s planting. Don’t you prefer the birds 
when flower seeds cost only five cents a packet? 
Clinging to the slender, swaying stems, the 
goldfinches themselves look so like yellow 
flowers that you do not suspect how many are 
feasting in the garden until they are startled 
into flight. Then away they go, bounding 
along through the air, now rising, now falling, 
in long aerial waves peculiar to them alone. 
You can always tell a goldfinch by its wavy 
course through the air. Often it accents the 
rise of each wave as it flies by a ripple of sweet, 
twittering notes. The yellow warbler is some- 
times called a wild canary because he looks 
like a canary ; the goldfinch has the same mis- 
leading name applied to him because he sings 
like one. 
But goldfinches by no means depend upon 
our gardens for their daily fare. Wild lettuce, 
mullein, dandelion, ragweed and thistles are 
special favourites. Many weed stalks suddenly 
blossom forth into black and gold when a flock 
of finches alight for a feast in the summer fields, 
or, browned by winter frost, bend beneath the 
weight of the birds when they cling to them pro- 
truding through the snow. 
