Goldfinch

“ I am sure that the nest of a mole is safer than that of a goldfinch hanging high up in a tree. Why does the goldfinch usually build her nest at the end of a branch?”
“Because she likes to have her nest dance up and down and sway about in the breeze,” said Tiny. “The goldfinch builds very well. Her nest is made of lichens and moss and sheep’s wool, and is so fashioned that the little birds cannot roll out. What jolly times the goldfinches must have teetering up and down in a roomy nest on a starlit night!” ”

“ Whatever doubt may exist as to the services rendered to man by the Sparrow and Chaffinch, about the Goldfinch there can be no difference of opinion. The farmer has no better friend, and yet an abundance of Goldfinches on an estate is anything but a welcome sight; for it denotes abundance of its favourite food, the seeds of thistles. Where these weeds flourish, there, for the most part, Goldfinches are to be met with in considerable numbers. ”

“ The goldfinch loses his bright feathers and canary-like song as the cold season approaches, but not even a New England winter can rob him of his sweet call and his cheerful spirits; and for one, I think him never more winsome than when he bangs in graceful attitudes above a snow-bank, on a bleak January morning.
Glad as we are of the society of the goldfinches and the red-polls at this time of the year, we cannot easily rid ourselves of a degree of solicitude for their comfort ”

“ You will see at once that he dresses differently from the American goldfinch, so well known in the East, and, for that matter, just as well known on the plains of Colorado, where both species dwell in harmony. There are some white markings on the wings of Spinus psaltria that give them a gauze-like appearance when they are rapidly fluttered.
His song and some of his calls bear a close resemblance to those of the common goldfinch, but he is by no means a mere duplicate of that bird; he has an individuality of his own. ”

“ 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 sometimes called a wild canary because he looks like a canary; the goldfinch has the same misleading name applied to him because he sings like one. ”

“ The idea of flying was still remote from their little pates. These observations prove that young bush-sparrows develop much more rapidly than young goldfinches; yet, strange as it may seem, the goldfinch, when grown, flies much higher, if not more swiftly, than his little neighbor, and continues longer on the wing.
On the same day I sat down in the clover, a few rods from the goldfinch’s nest, and kept close watch on both the old birds and their offspring for an hour and a half. ”

“ Fear was unknown to him, and from the moment of his arrival he was interested in everything that took place around him; looking at each bird in succession; making close study of every member of the family; noticing the sounds of the street, including the sparrow broils on the porch-roof; in fact, extremely wide-awake and observing. To the goldfinch's song he gave attention, standing motionless except for a slight nervous jerk of one wing, looking and listening as intently as though studying the notes for future use. ”

“ Goldfinches may be taught to perform many amusing tricks, to draw up water for themselves by a small thimble-sized bucket, or to raise the lid of a small box to obtain the seed within. A goldfinch has been trained to appear dead; it could be held up by the tail or claw without exhibiting any signs of life, or to stand on its head with its claws in the air, or to imitate a Dutch milk-maid going to market with pails on its shoulders, or to appear as a soldier, keeping guard as sentinel. ”

“ It is frequently confused with the goldfinch; but careful observation of markings, of flight, and of song will show decided differences. The goldfinch has a black crown, wings, and tail, an unstreaked breast, undulating flight, and a sustained song. This little olive and yellow bird has no black in its plumage; it makes short flights, and sings a simple strain. It is not a seed-eater, like the finches, but is insectivorous.
YELLOW WARBLER ”

“ After a while a male goldfinch appeared on the next tree, but he did not act in the least as if invited by her call. He seemed merely to be interested as any bird would be by her evident excitement. He watched her calmly, but did not offer to follow when at last she flew.
Time, true to his reputation, was hurrying away even these sweet summer days, and still the love affairs of our little beauties seemed no nearer settlement than at first. In the opinion of impatient observers, their wooing was as long drawn out as that of Augustus and Araminta in an old-fashioned three-volume novel. ”

“ For to this day the Goldfinch is persecuted by human folk who admire his wonderful plumage and his beautiful song. He is kept captive in a cage, while his less gorgeous brothers fly freely in the beautiful world out of doors. ”

“ Nor is this world so difficult to enter as it seems at first. Science—whose help is needed—has, to be sure, shrouded itself in technicalities, buried its facts under scientific terms, and hidden its names in a dead language. But all this, which perhaps was necessary, can be got over. With a little courage, and some perseverance, this bristling array of difficulties may be broken through, and the charming goldfinch be as lovely and bewitching under the name of Spinus tristis, as of thistle bird, or yellow bird. ”

“ The hawking or street trade comprises about a tenth of the whole.
The sale of piping bullfinches is, of course, small, as only the rich can afford to buy them. A dealer estimated it at about 400 yearly.
The Goldfinch is also in demand by street customers, and is a favourite from its liveliness, beauty, and sometimes sagacity. It is, moreover, the longest lived of our caged small birds, and will frequently live to the age of fifteen or sixteen years. A goldfinch has been known to exist twenty-three years in a cage. Small birds, generally, rarely live more than nine years. ”

“ When the goldfinch goes
--and we know that he is going rapidly--other coarser fringilline birds, without the melody, brightness, and charm of the goldfinch--sparrow and bunting--come in, and in some rough fashion supply its place; but when the kingfisher disappears an important place is left absolutely vacant, for in this case there is no coarser bird of homely plumage with the fishing instinct to seize upon it. Here, then, is an excellent opportunity for an experiment. In the temperate regions of the earth there are many fine kingfishers to select from ”

“ It would be quite as easy to make several species of the common Goldfinch as of the European Dunlin. There is the greatest difference in size and plumage between the smallest race of Goldfinch found in the Mediterranean sub-region and the very large Goldfinches which are procured in some parts of Russia. But so many intermediate specimens can be found that bridge over the differences between the extreme types, that it is much more satisfactory to recognize the various races as being merely local variations from the original type.—H.A. Macpherson (Pitlochry, N.B.) . ”

“ The female has sometimes to be taken off the nest, and even to be held in the hand, before the eggs can be examined.
Our American goldfinch is one of the loveliest of birds. With his elegant plumage, his rhythmical, undulatory flight, his beautiful song, and his more beautiful soul, he ought to be one of the best beloved, if not one of the most famous; but he has never yet had half his deserts. He is like the chickadee, and yet different. ”

“ The goldfinch does not build her nest in the hole of the tree, or in the crotch of the limb; but hangs it with exquisite skill on the slender waving, outward branch, where no animal, or larger bird, or any depredator, can be sustained. She is not more timid than others ”

“ In the first place, the yellow warbler is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it has neither black crown, wings, nor tail, and it does have reddish-brown streaks on its breast that are sufficiently obsolete to make the coloring of that part look simply dull at a little distance. The goldfinch's bill is heavy, in order that it may crack seeds, whereas the yellow warbler's is slender, to enable it to pick minute insects from the foliage. The goldfinch's wavy, curved flight is unique, and that of his "double" differs not a whit from that of all nervous, flitting warblers. ”

“ A hedge-sparrow or two hopping very quietly and unobtrusively about on the outskirts of the great [Pg 203] central crowd have, of course, no pretensions to anything like distinguished beauty, but there is one bird—one, unfortunately, not only as a species but individually—that may, perhaps, stand up in rivalry even with the brambling.
This is a solitary male goldfinch who, as though knowing the sad and waning state of his clan, feeds all by himself and—as one seems to fancy—in a melancholy manner. Be this as it may, his mode of feeding is quite different to that of the other birds. ”

“ It is too bad they do not summer in our Massachusetts woods, though possibly [61] I should care less for them if they made themselves neighborly the whole year long, like their relatives, the white-breasts.
A goldfinch is passing far above, dropping music as he goes. He is one of the high-fliers. Wherever you may happen to be, at the summit of Mount Washington or where not, you will pretty often hear his sweet voice as he wanders under the sky, dipping and rising, dipping and rising, voice and wing keeping step together. ”

“ Abundant in many mountainous regions, it has been given the name Rocky Mountain Goldfinch, and the olive-green color of the plumage of its back has given it the very appropriate name Arkansas Green-backed Goldfinch.
Like the common thistle-bird, it has a social disposition and feeds with its fellows in flocks of a greater or less number. Not infrequently several individuals will alight on the same plant and immediately begin a diligent search for their food of seeds. ”

“ The female Goldfinch is much darker in color. Instead of the black cap and black wings of the male, she is covered with a brownish olive above, and a yellowish white beneath. Indeed, she is much the more modest of the two. This little “Wild Canary,” who sings as he flies, is as useful as he is attractive. He eats objectionable weed seeds and other similar food. He is greatly attracted by sun-flower seeds and he would often come very close to our homes if we provided for him. ”

“ The Goldfinch inhabits a much larger extent of country than most others of its race, being found over the whole of Europe, in Madeira, the Canary Isles, North-western Africa, a large part of Asia, and even in Cuba. Districts rich in trees and plants are the favourite resorts of this bird, from whence it flies over the surrounding country in search of food, frequently visiting our fields and gardens, and enlivening us by its activity and beautiful song. When upon the ground, its movements are decidedly slow and awkward ”

“ People would see me among the leaves and know just where to find my eggs."
Mr. Goldfinch thought that there was never a bird who had a prettier, dearer, or harder-working little wife than he, and he would wonder how he was ever happy before he knew her. That is a way that people have of forgetting the days that are past; and the truth is that Mr. Goldfinch had made fun of the Robins and other birds all spring, because they had to build nests and hunt worms for their babies, while he had nothing to do but sing and sleep and feed himself. ”

“ The air is quite sharp this morning, and the birds come fluttering about the windows, as though it were more chilly than they liked out of doors; we saw several robins, sparrows, and goldfinches about the windows in different parts of the house. One goldfinch, in full color, flew against the glass pane. One would gladly open to the little creatures, but if we approach the window they are frightened, and fly off again; it is a pity we cannot make them understand they would be very welcome to warm
themselves and then fly away at will. ”

“ The ornithologists were wrong about the chough, just as they had been wrong about the goldfinch, during the late years of the nineteenth century, and as they were wrong about the swallows and martins in later years. Of the goldfinch, they said, and solemnly put it down in their books, that owing to improved methods of agriculture the thistle had been extirpated and the bird, deprived of his natural food, had forsaken this country. ”

“ They are such active birds that they need plenty of space. They chatter all day long and are very cheery, and they are very beautiful in their brown, gold, and scarlet coats. In a wild state the goldfinch feeds chiefly on the seeds of weeds and thistles, groundsel, and dandelion, and he is therefore a friend to the farmer, but in captivity be will thrive on canary and German rape with several hemp-seeds daily, and now and then lettuce, thistle-seed, and fruit. ”

“ He does not follow the fashion of his fellows; he resists the allurements of the nesting month; he waits. Whether it be for a late-coming insect necessary to the welfare of his nestlings, or for the thistle silk which alone makes fit cushion for his delicate spouse and her "wee babies," opinions differ.
But though goldfinch nests were not set up, goldfinch wooing went on with enthusiasm; the [Pg 245] summer air rang with sweetest song, and the graceful wave-like flight charmed us from morning till night. The courtship of the bird of July is a beautiful sight. ”