482 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



In severe winters Mr. Audubon lias met witli the Pine Finch as far south 

 as Henderson, Ky., and Charleston, S. C, hut sucli visits wore always brief. 

 In Au;'ust, 18;52, he met with Hocks of these birds in Labratlor. They were 

 in company with the Crossbill, and were i'eeding on the seeds of the fir-trees, 

 and also on tliose of the thistle. When at the IMagdalen Islands he frec^uently 

 saw flocks moving from various directions. At Bras d'Or, towards the end of 

 July, they were in great numbers, and the old birds were accompanied by 

 their young. They frequented thickets of willows and elders in the vicinity 

 of water, and were very fearless and gentle. According to his account they 

 sing while on the wing, and their notes are sweet, varied, clear, and mellow, 

 and, while somewhat resembling the song of the C. tristis, are perfectly dis- 

 tinct from it. Its lliglit is exactly similar, both gliding through the air in 

 graceful ami deep cvirves. 



In Washington Territory Dr. Cooper Ibund this Finch an aljundant and 

 constant resident, migrating to the coast in winter, where it feeds on the seeds 

 of the alder. In summer they were gregarious, even when occupied with 

 their nests and young. lie has never met with any in California, not even 

 in the Sierra Nevada, though tliey have been found by others along its 

 whole western slope, as i'ar south as Fort Tejon. They feed on the seeds 

 of both coniferous and deciduous trees. 



Early in May, 1859, a pair of these birds built their nest in the garden of 

 Professor Benjamin Peirce, in Cambridge, IMass., near the colleges. It was 

 found on the 9th by Mr. Frederick Ware, and already contained its full 

 complement of four eggs, partly incubated. This nest was three inches 

 in height and I'nur in diameter. The depjtb uf tlie cavity, as well as its 

 diameter at the rim, was two inches. Tlie base of thi.s nest was a mass 

 of loose materials, and tlie lower pcntions of the sides were hardly differ- 

 ent. The up]H'r ami tlie inner jiortions of this fabric werc^ much more com- 

 pactly and neatly woven, or rather felted together. Tiie outer layers con- 

 sisted of small twigs of the Thuja, dried stems and ends of pine twigs, 

 grasses, sedges, stalks of small vegetables, fine roots, bits of wool, and coarse 

 hair. The whole was very closely lined with tine dry roots of Iierbaccous 

 plants and tlie hair of small i[uadru]3eds. 



The eggs are of an oblong-oval sha])e, of a light green ground-color, spotted, 

 chiefly at the larger end, with markings of a light rusty-brown. They meas- 

 ure .71 by .50 of an inch. Tliey have a marked resemlilance to the eggs of 

 the LinaricB, but the ground-color is of a slightly ligliter shade. 



A nest of this species, found May 15, 1868, at Brunich, Canada, was com- 

 posed almost entirely of pine twigs interlaced in a very neat and artistic 

 manner. Its diameter was three and a half inches, and its height two inches. 

 It was lined with hair. The cavity was mie and a half inches deejJ and two 

 inches wide. 



