EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH 389 



summer of 1944 I found a bird just starting to build her nest on July 

 16. Though I was unable to continue observations of this nest, 

 which was on private grounds, a successful brood could not have left 

 it until about August 20. Thus apparently the species is double- 

 brooded here as it is abroad. 



In fom- nests studied at Massapequa, one in May and three in July, 

 the five eggs were laid at the rate of one a day, either during the 

 night or very early in the morning, for the new egg was always present 

 by 7 a.m. The female incubated very closely and remained on the 

 nest almost continuously after the first egg was laid. I found one 

 female off her nest only twice before the first-hatched young was 

 6 days old, and both times she returned within 5 minutes after I 

 arrived. Voluntary absences usually lasted from 3 to 4 minutes, and 

 9 minutes was the longest time I noted an incubating female off her 

 nest. At two nests the incubating female seldom flushed before I 

 actually touched the nesting branch. When driven off the nest, the 

 female was usually back on her eggs as quickly as conditions permitted, 

 sometimes within 30 seconds. At the nest Roger Peterson photo- 

 graphed with me in early July 1942, the female came back on the 

 nest almost before preparations could be made for taking the picture, 

 with the branches tied back to reveal the nest, the camera on its 

 platform next to it, and Peterson standing not 25 feet away operating 

 it by remote control. 



The male starts feeding the female on the nest apparently as soon 

 as she starts incubating. At a Massapequa nest I began watching 

 when the second egg was laid, the male was already bringing food to 

 his mate. Feeding was always well in progress by 7:00 a.m., and the 

 latest I observed was at 8:03 p.m. Intervals between feedings were 

 shortest in the early morning, usually 15 to 20 minutes, and longest 

 during the middle of the day, from 40 to 53 (the longest) minutes in 

 May-June nestings. Intervals were noticeably longer in July- 

 August nestings. 



When the male brought food to his mate, he usually gave five or six 

 downward thrusts of his bUl as she assumed a begging pose, and then 

 regurgitated into her open gape. She then worked her mandibles 

 vigorously as she swallowed the food. Before he flew away the male 

 visibly swallowed whatever remained in his biU. At no time did I 

 see a female fed off the nest, nor did I see one voluntarily leave the nest 

 after 7:45 p.m. One incubating female occasionally left with her 

 mate after he fed her on the nest and sat with him a short time on 

 nearby electric wires. She usually excreted, preened a little, and spent 

 a few minutes wiping her biU on the wire while the male sang inter- 

 mittently before she returned to her duties. 



