| Show Out of Doors in the West Sketches of Natural History in the Rocky Mountain Plateau Edited by J. H. Professor of Nature Study in the University of p WINTER r The American goldfinch is a beautiful widely-distributed over the The spring has a canary-yellow and tail the wings with white bars and the tail Avith patches of It is smaller than the English being under five inches in The has upper-parts olive sometimes tinged with green or wings and tail blackish white markings under parts grayish tinged with winter the male resembles the summer who has become more brown and buffy but his wings are still a deep clearly marked with The goldfinch stays with us all Perhaps you have failed to recognize Large flocks of goldfinches are now in the fields or on the eating weed They resemble sparrows but there are white marks on and and the long call of which the birds tell you what they really generally wear the russet dress of says have their no less than the the bright tints depart from their foliage of and they flit past like withered leaves in rustling Except during the short mating associate in and live a nomadic Their undulating mode of flight seems to express joy and when they add it is the very abandon of Even in when the fields we brown and the trees are a flock of goldfinches the charm of life to an otherwise dead Tie goldfinch but not to the extent that truly migratory species for desert their summer making journeys spend the winter beyond the of the United the on the gradually move southward as far as Gulf and in winter are found from the Gulf coast as as to latitude of central New regions of comparatively low birds le to the far north in order to find the proper climatic in to rear their and to spend Some of them go to the provinces and others But among the sublime heights of the they are required to make a journey of only a few say from five to one hundred or slightly according to the locality up the defiles and canyons or over the to find the conditions as to nesting that are precisely to their The wind blowing down to their haunts from the snowy summits carries on its wings the same keenness and invigoration that they would find if they to British Every style of migratory habit may be observed in our own wonderful There is a two-fold migratory current a movement up and down the mountain and another north and The migratory area is thus a perfect network of lines of Some species summer in the mountains and winter on the plains others summer in the pass down to the plains in the then wing their way farther south into New Central and even South They reverse this order on their return to the north in the there are species that remain here all the year some of them in the others on the and others again in both Linnaeus named this species The second part of the name may be recognized as the Latin word for it refers to the rather plaintive call note of the The first part of the name has reference to prickly on which the goldfinch loves being especially fond of the seeds of When you see the silvery thistle ornamented with this animated bit of gold and you may know that Nature is interposing one of her potent checks to the too rapid increase of weed Every goldfinch saves the farmer much hard work by destroying weed which form the bulk of its food although during the breeding season it gives to its young considerable animal consisting of insects of various Besides its sad little there are two other melancholy facts about the life of the Its love of prickly weed seeds causes it to feed freely on those of the and the hooked barbs of the seeds on the weedy burrs of this monster weed sometimes catch and hold the wee birds till they die of starvation and exhaustion in their efforts to Another lamentable fact is that boys often kill these pretty and beneficial Our species is A. t. the last part meaning pale or because our bird is especially in than the and the white markings on wings and tail are more The debonair Arkansas goldfinch has received its not from the state of but from the Arkansas river a stream that dashes down from the mountains and flows eastwardly through the southern part of nattily this little and has bird wears his black his olive-green bright yellow You will see at once that he dresses differently from the American so well known in the for that just as well known on the plains of where both species dwell m white markings on the wings There are some of A. that give them a gauze-like appearance when they are rapidly The flight of the goldfinch is bounding like that of the but its movements are apparently without never seems to know just what its destination is to so after making a few bounds in one it appears to find the exertion too turns slides the and at last flutters down to a spot not far distant from its starting The song is sweet and it is and carries during the nuptial it is prolonged and sometimes a flock singing in In the fall the male goldfinch dons a a garb much like the one worn by his Then we must learn to recognize him by the white bars on the the uncertain and the unmistakable call-notes and The goldfinch is a Dutcher remarks that goldfinches are very cleanly in their habits and indulge in frequent the border of a shallow pool is an excellent place to study this as it is not an uncommon sight to see a number of the brightly colored males gathered The nesting site may be in an evergreen or deciduous bush or and the nest may be built only a few feet from the or at considerable where it is saddled on or attached to a forked The is an exquisite piece of bird compactly built of dried leaves and shreds of the outside being embellished with which Audubon says are attached by The inside of the nest is lined with the softest The mother bird is the builder of this tasteful her handsome during her nest building devoting most of his efforts to singing cheer to his industrious After the four to six bluish white eggs have been the singing partner has more work to for he has to feed his brooding His frequent visits are always announced with a sweet conversational which he seems able to give even though his bill is filled with Pine or Pine At the mouth of Western and canyons at similar places in spring and you may often see pairs of brown-streaked birds devouring the ripened seeds of the For half an hour at a tone I have watched them tearing the open heads of the closed flowers at sunset and devouring almost every They were quite and would eat and eat till I wondered how their little stomachs could contain much weed These birds seem slightly m than the like stay with us win ter and but chiefly among the pine where they are met with all They are closely related the and at all times tend to go jj flocks with roving and the song being similar to that of the goldfinch given in a very sharp They are essentially tain an are The Goldfinch though they will take insects and have Deen observed 3 to feed on the aphids or plant lice of apple 1 The pine is brownish olive above and whitish every feather having a dusky The bases and inner edges of the larger feathers are sulphur the outer edges yellowish and there are two brownish white bands on the To my eye the always darker and very much smaller than the house jl |
