and quite near the house. One alighted on the clothesline. Whenever Father or Mother came with food there was the greatest fluttering of wings. Each one called, "Ze bebe ze bebe," as loud as he could, and opened wide his bill to catch what the parents tossed or squirted out to him. It was no living, squirming thing, but a pulpy mass.
The young were yellow in front, olive on the back, and they had black wings with brown and white bars. The black tail was edged with white.
Goldfinches like sunflower seeds. But the main reason why they are so useful and so well liked is that they eat large quantities of thistle seeds and dandelion seeds.
When cold weather came the parent goldfinches were no longer so beautifully yellow, for they had put on their gray autumn coats.
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A YOUNG GOLDFINCH ALIGHTED ON THE CLOTHESLINE
