214 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



whether the majority remain thus united, or pair in 

 early spring we are at present unable to say. The 

 exquisite little nest is often placed in a fork of some 

 lichen- or moss-covered fruit tree, sometimes in an 

 evergreen, sometimes in the thick hedge that sur- 

 rounds a garden or an orchard. It is small and 

 neatly made, composed externally of dry grass- 

 stems, moss and roots, these materials being bound 

 together and garnished with spiders' webs, cocoons 

 and bits of lichen ; it is warmly lined with vegetable 

 down, hair, and feathers. The interior measures 

 about two inches in diameter and one inch in depth. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, white with 

 a greenish tinge in ground-colour, spotted and 

 speckled with dark brown, paler brown, and grey. 

 Throughout the nesting period the Goldfinch is 

 certainly a secretive and retiring bird, seldom be- 

 traying the whereabouts of the nest by its actions. 

 Two broods are occasionally reared in the season. 



The food of the Goldfinch in summer consists 

 largely of insects and larvse ; it is probable that the 

 young are reared exclusively on such a diet. Dur- 

 ing the remainder of the year seeds of various kinds, 

 especially of the commoner weeds, are almost its 

 sole support. 



The Goldfinch has the lores, the feathers at the 

 Ijase of the bill, the crown and a band extending- from 

 it behind the ear-coverts, black ; the forehead and 

 throat are crimson ; the remainder of the upper pai ts 



