“They eat sunflower seeds,” said Rap.  “We grow these seeds for our hens and the Goldies always get their share.”

“I wonder if that is why they are such a beautiful yellow,” said Dodo.  “‘Flying Sunflower’ would be a nice name for them.  No, you needn’t laugh at me, Nat; the man in the bird store said he gave Canaries red pepper to make them red, so I don’t see why the seed of yellow sunflowers shouldn’t make birds yellow!” But in spite of her argument Nat and Rap continued to laugh.

“It must be hard to tell them when they lose their yellow feathers,” said Nat finally.

“No; Goldfinches keep up a habit by which you can always tell them, old or young, male or female, in summer or winter.  Can you guess what it is?”

“I know!  Oh, I know!” cried Rap.  “They always fly with a dip and a jerk.”

The American Goldfinch

Length about five inches.

Male in summer:  bright clear yellow, with a black cap, and the wings and tail black with some white on both.

Female at all times, and male in winter:  light flaxen brown, the wings and tail as before, but less distinctly marked with white, and no black cap.

A Citizen of temperate North America, and a good neighbor.

Belongs to the guild of Weed Warriors, and is very useful.

THE SNOWFLAKE

(THE AUTUMN LEAF)

“It is a very warm day to talk about snowstorms and winter birds, but several of these birds belong to the Finch family,” said the Doctor, a few mornings later, as the children went through the old pasture down to the river woods in search of a cool quiet place to spend the morning.  The sun was hot, and most of the birds were hiding in the shade trees.  “But as the Snowflake will walk next to the Goldfinch in the procession of Bird Families I am going to show you after a while, we must have him now.”  “I think a cool bird will be very nice for a warm day,” said Dodo.  “Something like soda water and ice cream.  That makes me think—­Mammy Bun was cracking ice this morning, and I wonder what for!”

“I wonder!” said Olive, laughing.

“I know,” said Nat, who was a tease; “it must be to bake a cake with!”

[Illustration:  Snowflake.]

“Here is a nice place for us,” said the Doctor, who had walked on ahead, “where we can see over the fields and into the woods by only turning our heads, and the moss is so dry that we may sit anywhere we please.

“The trees are in full leaf now,” he continued, looking up as he leaned comfortably against the trunk of an oak that spread its high root ridges on each side of him like the arms of a chair.  “The spring flowers are gone, strawberries are ripe, and there is plenty of food and shelter for birds here.  But if we were to travel northward, beyond the United States and up through Canada, we should find that the trees were different; that there were more pines and spruces.  Then if we went still further north, even these would begin to grow more scanty and stunted, until the low pines in which the Grosbeak nests would be the only trees seen.  Then beyond this parallel of latitude comes the ’tree limit’—­”