13 



single nest. On the 13tli of April we were hunting in a low swamp, 

 near White River, when a solitary pine linnet attracted our attention 

 by hopping about on some fallen logs. In a few moments she flew 

 into a large hemlock, which stood apart from the rest, and immedi- 

 ately disappeared. After carefully looking over the entire tree, a 

 limb at a time, Mr. Bagg noticed a bunch of something almost com- 

 pletely concealed by a cluster of small branches. We were not sure 

 that it was a nest at all till a well-aimed stick drove ofi* the parent 

 bird, which was shot and proved to be the female. With great diffi- 

 culty the nest was secured, and it contained, at that early date (April 

 13), two nearly fledged young. It was tightly saddled on a large 

 limb, about thirty feet from the ground and nearly fifteen feet from 

 the trunk of the tree, and was so nicely hidden that, from a limb 

 directly above, I could not see it at all. One of the young was 

 skinned, while the other now constitutes a contented member of my 

 sister's "happy family," which previously consisted of an oriole 

 (Icterus haltimore), three thistlebirds {Chrysomitris tristis) and a 

 nonpareil (Cyanospiza ciris). He attained his full growth shortly 

 after his capture, and has since thrived on a mixed diet, though, like 

 his cousins the goldfinches, showing a decided preference for the 

 thickly-seeded spikes of the common plantain (Plantago major) . Also, 

 like his brighter-plumaged companions, he constantly raises and 

 lowers the occipital feathers when at all alarmed. 



In plumage he difiers from the adult bird, in having the belly marked 

 with yellow, the wing-bars ochraceous instead of whitish, and the 

 upper parts decidedly tinged with rufus. This rufus cast is due to the 

 fact that the bark-centred feathers of the back are, in the young, 

 margined with fulvous-brown, which is not the case with the old bird. 

 The nest is a very bulky structure for so small a bird, and its rough 

 exterior, loosely built of hemlock twigs, with a few sprigs of pigeon 

 moss (Polytrichum) interspersed, is irregular in outline, and measures 

 about six inches in diameter. The interior, on the contrary, is com- 

 pactly woven into a sort of felt, the chief ingredients of which are 

 thistledown and the fur and hair of various mammals. The cavity is 

 lined with horsehair, and measures two inches and a quarter in 

 diameter by an inch and a quarter in depth. This nest is much more 

 flat than that described by Dr. Brewer ^ from Cambridge, Mass., for 

 it measures but two inches in height at its highest point. A consid- 

 erable mass of dung adheres to the small twigs at one point in its 

 exterior, showing that the bird always "headed" the same way, and 

 was not particularly cleanly in her habits. From the size of the 



Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Vol. I, p. 482, 1874. 



