EASTERN GOLDFmCH 453 



the female will drive out other females. Once the male has begun 

 to feed the female on the nest, though, the male makes little or no 

 effort to defend his territory. A nesting study by H. Lewis Batts, Jr., 

 (1948) mentions nests in maples, Acer saccharum and Acer rubrum. 

 While there were four nests, only three pairs of goldfinches were 

 present, and only two nests were occupied at any one time. The 

 male fed the female, but otherwise took no part in nest building, 

 except sometimes to help shape the nest. 



Alexander F. Scutch (MS.) gives the following interesting account 

 of the building of the nest by the female goldfinch and of the sub- 

 sequent life of the pair at the nest : 



"On July 31, 1931, I watched a goldfinch building a nest, about 

 nine feet above the ground, on a horizontal limb of a young white 

 pine growing beside a road near Ithaca, New York. The outer shell 

 had apparently been completed, but the lining was still lacking. 

 Between 8:30 and 9:50 a.m. the female brought material eight times; 

 although the male accompained her he did not help to build. First 

 she flew up with long fibers that trailed behind her in the air. While 

 sitting in the nest to work them into the lining, she made a continual 

 sweet chirping, answering the calls of her mate who rested not far 

 off. When this material had been arranged to her satisfaction, she 

 flew away and found a white cocoon-case of a spider. After settling 

 in the nest she stuck it to the outer surface, then took it again in her 

 bill while she rotated to the left, applied it to another spot on the outer 

 surface, took it up anew and rotated farther to the left, placed it 

 on the outside and took it up again — and so on until she had made a 

 complete circuit of the nest. As she moved the cocoon from place to 

 place, some of the silky threads, adhering to the first point of attach- 

 ment, were drawn out to the second, from the second to the third, 

 and so on; thus the strands of cobweb were drawn over the surface 

 of the nest and helped to bind together the materials of which it was 

 composed. Next the female goldfinch brought a great billful of 

 silky thistle-down and deposited it in the interior of the nest. Sitting 

 in the cup, she proceeded to shape it to her breast. She sank down 

 into the ample hollow until only her tail and the top of her head were 

 visible to me above the rim. From the vibratory movements of her 

 body I inferred that she kneaded the materials with her feet, which 

 of course were hidden from view. In all these operations she generally 

 rotated to the left, or counter-clockwise. Whenever her mate was 

 near, she chu-ped prettily to him without interrupting her labors. 



"At a neighboring nest the male goldfinch, who usually escorted 

 his mate when she brought material for the structure, once carried 

 a billful to it, but hardly took the time to arrange it there. 



