300 NOTES ON THE 



firm structure. They are mostly lined with hairs. Four to 

 five is the usual number of the eggs. They are pale bluish- 

 green, spotted with orange-brown near the larger end. From 

 several circumstances, as well as what has been reported to 

 me from those familiar with the localities of their breeding I 

 think they probably do so in Minnesota about the middle or 

 latter part of May, but according to Mr. C. O. Tracy, in an ar- 

 ticle published in the Oi-nithologist and Oologist in June, 1883, 

 and which Mr. Langille has quoted, they breed in Vermont 

 much earlier. He found the nest and eggs "the last of March, 

 1878." It is a little remarkable how reports of different species 

 in this respect differ, when the general conditions seem much 

 the same. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Above, light-yellowish, each feather streaked with dark 

 brown; crown dark crimson; upper part of breast and sides of 

 body tinged with a lighter tint of the same; the rump and un- 

 der tail coverts similar but less vivid and with dusky streaks. 

 Rest of under parts white, streaked on the sides with brown; 

 loral region and chin dusky; cheeks and a narrow front, 

 whitish, brightest over the eye. Wing feathers edged exter- 

 nally, and tail feathers all around with white; two yellowish- 

 white bands across the wing coverts; secondaries and tertiaries 

 edged broadly with the same. Bill yellowish, tinged v/ith 

 brown on the culmen and gonys; The basal bristles brown, 

 reaching over half the bill. 



Length, 5.50; wing, 3 10; tail. 2.70. 



Habitat, northern portions of Northern Hemisphere. 



SPINrS TRISTIS (L.). (529.) 

 AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 



No species of our birds is more irregularly distributed than 

 this. Nor is there another more reliably persistent in its fa- 

 vorite localities. In all my observations for at least twenty- 

 five years, I have never looked in vain for it where it has pre- 

 viously reared its young, except when, by great changes in the 

 conditions favorable to its breeding, it has been practically 

 driven out, as where extensive removal of the timber and brush 

 for agricultural purposes has occurred. 



These localities are proximately near running water, where 

 the timber is somewhat scattered, and interspersed with smaller 

 growths like poplars and alders, and where brushy thickets 

 are common. They are also rolling, if not positively hilly, and 

 of course dry. They arrive in spring in force late in March 



