478 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETE^ 23 7 part i 



it. The male flew, singing in slow flight, to the top of a dead pine 50 

 feet from the nest. The female was still brooding on May 11, 



Van Rossem (1911) writes that at Mecca, at the north end of Salton 

 Sea, several pairs had nests well underway by Mar. 30, 1911. Thread 

 and cotton from the skinning table went into their makeup. 



Bancroft (1930) recorded green-backed goldfinches in central 

 Lower California only from San Ignacio, where the birds were common 

 in the gardens near the reservoir. They began to nest the first week 

 in April, building with plant down and the finest bark. The birds 

 were timid and hid their nests well, by preference in the grapevines, 

 though it was by no means unusual to find them in willow or fig trees. 



Nests in California are usually in bushes or trees in fairly dense 

 foliage, from 2 to 30 feet above the ground. They have been reported 

 in the following plants: cottonwood, grapevines, willow, fig, pear, 

 apricot, lemon, live oak, arrowweed, blue oak, walnut, valley oak, box 

 elder, blue gum, and cypress. 



On May 11a female goldfinch flushed from a nest 7 feet up in a 9-foot 

 blue oak halfway up a rocky hillside covered with slender oaks. As 

 the nearest other blue oaks were 10 to 60 feet away, the site was 

 exposed and a cold wind was blowing. The bird stayed within an area 

 50 feet across, moving from tree to tree and uttering single, loud 

 notes of alarm. The nest's slight, whitish walls were so thin in places 

 the light showed through the dark lining. It contained four eggs. 



On July 2, 1948, a female had completed less than one-fourth of 

 a nest in a hanging cluster of leaves about 7 feet up on the west side 

 of a valley oak, and was busily bringing shreds of bark from a willow 

 clump 100 feet away. Ten days later she was incubating. Twice an 

 observer walked within 5 feet of her without flushing her. In the 

 morning on July 17 the nest appeared unattended, but when an 

 observer touched the nest limb, the female leaped out and fluttered 

 to bare ground 12 feet away. She turned, watched for 2 or 3 seconds, 

 and fluttered off, barely clearing the ground and holding her body in 

 flight slanted forward at a 15-degree angle. She seemed to spread 

 her tail as a brake to intensify the effect of the fluttering motion. 

 This bird was the only green-backed goldfinch observed on the reser- 

 vation that made "injury feigning" displays. At midday on July 23 

 the nest contained a young bird one or two days old. The female 

 was brooding, and did not leave until a mirror was held over the 

 nest. Then she fluttered off to the tops of some dead grass 14 feet 

 away and fluttered from side to side over a path 3 feet wide for an 

 additional 10 feet. She then flew to a branch 30 feet from the nest 

 and perched, calling a series of slow kiyah, chee-wee, and chee notes. 

 In 3 or 4 minutes she graduaUy worked back to a perch 15 feet above 

 the nest where she remained calling for an additional 6 or 8 minutes. 



