File:Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley (1902) (14732739356).jpg

Identifier: handbookofbird00bail (find matches)
Title: Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds -- West (U.S.)
Publisher: Boston New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ransition and Upper Sonoian zones from thesouthern British Provinces south to Kentucky and Kansas, east of theRocky Mountains ; winters south to the Gulf of Mexico. Nest. — A neat cup-shaped structure of compactly woven plant fibers,lined with down and other soft mateiials; placed in tall bushes or low-trees. Eggs: 3 to 5. plain pale bluish or bluish white. Food. — Largely weed seed. The goldfinches, or wild canaries, as they are popularly called intheir many forms, if not as cultivated songsters as their caged rela-tives, have much sweeter call-notes and a happy round of their own.Their indolent lisping notes have a tinge of sadness, but as theyraise their heads from a thistle or sunflower to give them, and thenflit lightly ofi and go sauntering in undulating flight through theair the gentle-spirited birds seem as light-hearted as butterflies. In their home life they are among the most charming of birds,being tender, devoted mates and watchful parents. FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 321
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Fig. 40r.. Goldfinch. 529a. A. t. pallidus iMeanis). Pale Goldfinch. Adult mile in summer.— Sim\\nv to tristls. hut larg-er and paler, whiteiiiaikiii(;s of wiiig.s and tail more extended. Adult male in irinter: ninchlighter than iristis, Avith tints i)nrer and white niort extended. Male:lenffth (.skins) 4.-K)-;).();». uiny I.Sl-.l.dS. tail 1.72-1-.05, hill .:;S-.4.?. Fe~male: len-th (skins) 4.4l-.*).0(). uinj;- L.71-2..I2, tail 1.7O-li.08, bill .:10-.44. litiiKtrks. — Tlie printijjal difference between pallidus and tristris is inwinter plumage. Distribution. —Koeky Moujitain plateau di.strict from British Columbiaand Manitoba south to northern and eastern Mexieo. 529b. A. t. salicamans (Grinn.). Willow Goldfinch. Adult male in summer. — Except for shorter win;>:s and tail scarcelydistinguishable from tristis; black cap, if anything, not so extended and

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