EASTERN GOLDFINCH 455 



the eggs. To learn something about these matters, I watched a nest 

 situated on the bough of an oak tree that reached out above a shady 

 suburban roadway. My first vigil began at sunrise on July 28. At 

 5:21, three minutes after I saw the sun's earliest rays, the male gold- 

 finch winged close by the oak tree and the female called softly from her 

 nest. After another three minutes he flew into the oak and the 

 sitting bird called more loudly. He approached the nest with nothing 

 visible in his bill but with his throat or crop well stocked with food, 

 stood upon the run, and regurgitated to her while she fluttered her 

 partially spread wings like a hungry nestling. After delivering the 

 meal he went away, but returned to feed her at 5:45 and again at 6:56. 

 At 7:10, nearly two hours after sunrise, the female, who for the last 

 few minutes had been fidgeting restlessly in the nest, left it for the 

 first time since I began my vigil. She remained out of sight only five 

 minutes, returned and preened her feathers in the nest-tree three 

 minutes more, then settled on the eggs after leaving them uncovered 

 for eight minutes. When, at 7:30, I went for breakfast, she sat 

 raised up and panting, for a little circle of sunshine found its way 

 through the luxuriant foliage of the oak tree and fell upon her nest. 



"The following morning I began my vigil earlier, at 4:52, when the 

 light was barely strong enough to reveal the goldfinch sitting in her 

 nest amidst the clustered leafage. She remained quietly covering her 

 eggs until 5:45, when she began to call loudly in a high, warbling voice. 

 She had heard the flight-song of her approaching mate before I did. 

 A moment later he arrived, perched on the nest's rim and fed her by 

 regurgitation. Again at 7:04 she called out before I heard her mate's 

 voice, but was not deceived, for he soon arrived and fed her, passing 

 about thirty mouthfuls in quick succession. At 7:52 I left her on the 

 nest. She had sat continuously for the first three hours after day- 

 break, and during this period had received two generous meals from 

 her mate. 



"On August 1 I watched the nest from 3:35to7:35in the afternoon. 

 During this four-hour period the female goldfinch sat continuously 

 except for two short absences from the nest, from 4:24 to 4:34, and 

 again from 7:21 to 7:28 — seventeen minutes in all. She returned to 

 her eggs from her second recess just as the sun sank behind the crest 

 of the hill beyond the lake. Her mate came to feed her twice, at 4:48 

 and at 6:14. At the latter hour I saw clearly for the first time just 

 how the feeding was done — on earlier occasions the female's head had 

 been screened from my view by the rim of the nest. The female 

 goldfmch heard her mate's flight-song while he was still far distant, and 

 called at first loudly, then softly and continuously, until he arrived. 

 He stood on the rim of the nest and held his head above that of his 

 mate, who pointed her bill upward to receive his offering. He took 



