PETER THE GOLDFINCH 245 



At any rate Dickie's was built very much like the nest 

 of the goldfinches near by^ tho it did not show as fine 

 workmanship. 



Goldfinches are peculiar birds. They are in the North 

 always early in the spring, but for some unexplained rea- 

 son do not nest until August. Just at the time other birds 

 have finished their year's brooding, and are beginning 

 to molt and get ready for winter, the goldfinches think 

 about rearing a family. Possibly they have been waiting 

 for an abundance of milkweed and thistledoT\Ti. At any 

 rate they raise their young in a veritable bed of down 

 gathered from these weeds. The outside of the nest is 

 closely woven of fine grass and shreds of tough bark, but 

 the bottom inside is a cushion of down sometimes an inch 

 thick. For so tiny a nest it would seem unnecessary to 

 make so thick a base, but evidently this bird, having waited 

 60 long, means to give its young the best that can be had. 

 The nest is often placed in a bush or low shrub, not 

 more than five or six feet from the ground. However, for 

 years our plum thicket was a favorite nesting place for 

 these birds, and as the trees had been pruned so that the 

 lowest limbs were five or six feet high, their nests were 

 usually ten or twelve feet from the ground; and nests 

 have been reported as high as thirty or forty feet. 



The goldfinch sometimes weaves lichens in the outer cov- 

 ering of the nest, like the wood peewee, so that it is difficult 

 to discover. The goldfinch lays from four to six bluish 

 white eggs, not differing much from canary eggs except 

 that these last are usually marked with reddish brown. 



The female goldfinch usually does all of the nestbuilding, 

 tho her mate sometimes assists in carrying material and 

 always feeds her while she is brooding. The mother canary 



