EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH 387 



the early nests found in Central Park, New York City, E. T. Adney 

 (1886) describes one built in the long needles of a pine tree on a slender 

 horizontal branch about 12 feet from the ground. Most April and 

 early May nests here were built in conifers; deciduous trees were 

 occupied later when their leaves developed more fully. Among the 

 deciduous trees the Norway maple appeared to be the favorite. Of 

 the 15 nests I found in Massapequa and Seaford, 12 were in Norway 

 maples, 1 in a swamp maple, 1 in a pitch pine, and 1 in an arborvitae. 

 The inaccessibility of most conifers in this area within the boundaries 

 of private grounds perhaps accounts for the small percentage of nests 



1 found in evergreens. 



John T. Nichols (1936) writes of a female accompanied by a singing 

 male carrying nesting material into a large, thick-foliaged pine at 

 Garden City Apr. 21, 1933, but the birds apparently deserted the site 



2 days later. On May 12, 1935, he observed "two birds flying back 

 and forth in company and saw one of them visit and thus disclose their 

 essentially completed nest," which was about 14 feet up in a small 

 maple. The only nest reported in this country outside the New York 

 area was found Jidy 11, 1890, within 7 feet of the ground in an apple 

 tree at North ville, near Worcester, Mass. (Churchill, 1891). This 

 nest, with its clutch of five eggs and the female, was collected for the 

 Natural History Society of Worcester. 



All the nest-building I witnessed was done early in the morning, 

 never later than 1 1 a.m. The male often accompanied the female as 

 she traveled back and forth, and alighted nearby while she picked up 

 nesting material. Following her back into the nest area, he sang as 

 she worked, but I never saw a male come very close to the nest at 

 this period. As I never found a nest just as it was started, I could 

 not determine the exact period of nest building. 



Nest heights at Massapequa ranged from 5 feet 9 inches in the 

 arborvitae to 26 feet 6 inches in the pitch pine. The trunk diameter 

 of the arborvitae was 1% inches, its height 7% feet. The smallest 

 occupied maple stood 12 feet 6 inches tall, and its nest was 9 feet 

 2 inches above the ground, fastened to an offset on the trunk supported 

 by upright sprigs. Three nests were found in fairly large maples, one 

 in the upper, one in the middle, and one in the lower branches. All 

 were about two-thirds the way out from the trunk, well hidden among 

 the foliage, and usually just beneath other branches that concealed 

 them from above. Supported below by the main branch, they were 

 often further secured by the side walls interwoven around two or three 

 small upright twigs. The arborvitae nest was well concealed in the 

 center of the tree; the most exposed nest was the one in the pitch pine. 



British nests, according to Witherby (1938) are "neatly built of 

 roots, bents, moss, and lichens, interwoven with wool, lined vegetable- 



646-737— 68— pt. 1 27 



