typically shorter, or not much longer than the hind toe, which is equal to the middle toe :
anterior toes very short, the lateral equal. Claws slender, acute, fully curved, the hinder one
much developed, particularly in old birds. The feet, in fact, are as much Scansorial as those
of the Me lip hay id a', both groups being Scansorial types of their respective circles.*—Sw.
Dimensions.
Inch. Lin. Length, total . « Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin . 5 6 Length of bill from" rictus . 0 5* Length of middle nail . 0 3$ „ of tail « i. 2 6 ,7 of tarsus . . 0 7 „ of hind toe. 0 3J „ of folded wing . 3 0 „ of middle toe . . 0 4 ,, ' of its nail . . 0 4f „ of bill above 0 4*
[81.] 1. Carduelis Americana. (Edwards.) American Goldfinch.
Sub-f a m il y , Coccothraustinae, Swains. Genus, Carduelis, A u c t o r .
The American Goldfinch ( Carduelis Americana). Edwards, pi. 274.-j-
Golden Finch. P enn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 371, No. 242.
New York Siskin. I d em , p. 372, No. 243. (Male changing his plumage, and the male in his
winter dress taken for the female.)
Frmgilla tristis ( Yellow-bird or Goldfinch). "Wil so n , i., p. 20, pi. 1, f. 2. Adult male.
B onap. Syn., p. I ll, No. 181. Om., i., p. 57, pi. 8, f. 4. Female.
This very gay Goldfinch is one of the tardiest summer visitors of the fur-
countries ; and it retires southwards in September, after a stay of less than
three months. Wilson says it frequently assembles in great numbers on the
same tree to bask and dress in the sun, singing in concert for half an hour
together, much like the English Goldfinch; which it also resembles in
becoming very familiar in captivity. Its eggs are very obtuse at one end and
acute at the other. They are white, surrounded at the thick end with a few spots
of yellowish-brown and a greater number of very subdued lavender-purple.—R.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, in full breeding plumage, killed 29th June, 1827.
C olour.— General colour of the upper and under plumage of the body bright gamboge-
yellow, the crown forehead, wings and tail being deep black: rump and tail covers above
and below white. Wing covers dull olive-yellow, the last range black and tipped with white;
greater covers the same. The lesser quill feathers are all edged and tipped more or less with
* As the true generic distinctions of JAnaria have not been rightly understood or, indeed, explained, they are here
given.—'Sw.
f We see no reason why Linnaeus should have changed the prior name of Americana, given to this species by its
first describer, for one so peculiarly inappropriate as that of tristis.—Sw.