wn, and gobbling it up. I
should think it would choke them," said Dodo.

"Those are some of the fly-away seeds that Rap spoke of a moment ago.
The fluff is not the seed, but a sort of sail to which the seed is
fastened, that the wind may blow it away to another place to grow. If
you look carefully you will see that the birds do not eat thistle-down,
but only the seed; they will soon use the down to line their pretty
round cup-shaped nests." "Oh, yes," said Dodo, "there are lots of
fluffy seeds, and they mostly belong to very bad weeds. Olive has been
telling us about them, Uncle Roy, and so of course the Goldies do heaps
of good by eating them. If they eat those weed-seeds and do not need
insects they can live here all winter--can't they, uncle?"

"Certainly; they gather in flocks after their nesting-time, which you
see is very late. Then the males shed their bright-yellow feathers, and
look exactly like their wives and children. Still, they make a merry
party flying about in the garden and field edges, where the composite
flowers have left them food, whispering and giggling all day long--even
singing merrily now and then. They often have hard times in winter, and
when I am here at the Farm I always scatter canary seed on the snow for
them."

"What is a com-pos-ite flower?" asked Dodo.

"A kind of flower which has a great many little blossoms crowded
together in a bunch, so that they look like one big flower--such as a
dandelion, thistle, or sunflower. Olive will tell you more about them
to-morrow. She is the Flower Lady, you know--I am only your Bird Uncle,
and if I mix up flowers with birds I shall be apt to confuse you."

"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."