. The children's book of birds . ost birds put on their new suits just afterthe young ones are grown up, and before theyall start for the South to spend the winter, — thatis, with many of our common birds, in that time they are rather shy, and stop sing-ing. If you did not see one now and then, youmight think they were all gone. Sometimes the new fall suit is not at all likethe old one. There is the goldfinch, all summerin bright yellow. When he comes out in hisnew suit in August, it is dull-colored, much likethe one his mate wears all the year, and in win-ter, when goldfinches fly a
. The children's book of birds . ost birds put on their new suits just afterthe young ones are grown up, and before theyall start for the South to spend the winter, — thatis, with many of our common birds, in that time they are rather shy, and stop sing-ing. If you did not see one now and then, youmight think they were all gone. Sometimes the new fall suit is not at all likethe old one. There is the goldfinch, all summerin bright yellow. When he comes out in hisnew suit in August, it is dull-colored, much likethe one his mate wears all the year, and in win-ter, when goldfinches fly around in little flocks,they look nearly all alike. In the spring, the male goldfinch comes outagain in yellow. He has two suits a year, — abright yellow one in the spring, and a dull olive-green for the winter. But his new spring dressis not a full suit. The yellow of the body is allfresh, but the black wings are the same the yearround. Some birds have two, different colored dressesin a year J one they get without changing a. AMERICAN GOLDFINCH HOW HE CHANGES HIS CLOTHES 27 feather. Suppose they have feathers of black,with gray on the outside edges. All winter thegray shows and the birds seem to have graycoats. But in spring the gray edges wear or falloff, and the black shows, and then they look asif they had come out in new black suits. It isas if you should take off a gray overcoat andshow a black coat under it. There is another interesting thing about birdsdress. Some of them look like their mates, thefather and mother birds so nearly alike that it ishard, sometimes impossible, to tell them when that is the case, you will notice thatthe color is not very gay. If the father wears abright-colored suit, the mother does not look likehim. For this reason the little mother is not too easilyseen when she is on her nest. If the goldfinchmother were as bright as her mate, everybodywho came near would see her on the nest, andsome animal might take her, and leave the youn
Size: 1262px × 1980px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
