THE OOLOGIST. 



89 



his head. These birds did uot. how- 

 ever, confine themselves exclusively to 

 the lowlands, for I have seen them 

 wandering over the hills, turning over 

 leaves and sticks in search of game. 



Sometimes 1 would lind a nest on the 

 ground, a nest constructed of a few 

 dead leaves and a little dried grass 

 thrown together in a slatternly hap- 

 hazard way that suggested the Whip- 

 poor-will, but the four, smooth, clay 

 colored eggs with their crowded spots 

 of dark brown betrayed the Woodcock. 

 On emerging from the shell the young 

 Woodcocks were covered with a yel- 

 lowish down, striped with brown or 

 black and were the comicalist little 

 things imaginable. Helpless as they 

 were they bad no thought of remaining 

 idly in the nest but began to toddle 

 about, seemingly overloaded with their 

 excessively large bills, as soon as they 

 were hatched. 



Woodcocks migrate in heedless, go as 

 you please style and I have seen some 

 stragglers so late in the fall and others 

 so early in the spring that I could al- 

 most believe that a few stayed with us 

 through the winter, though this is im- 

 probable. 



Deep in the woods the little <retk 

 was overhung by a jutting bank of 

 sandstone fringed by waving ferns and 

 dainty maidenhair and fragrant in early 

 springtime with the witching perfume 

 of pink hepaticas. There was no 

 spring on the rock, but water oozed 

 from the crevices and gathering in a 

 tiny stream trickled into the brook be- 

 low. 



This silvery thread of dropping water 

 furnished a convenient bath for the 

 Hummingbirds and I have seen them 

 dart back and forth through it in great 

 apparent delight and then seek conven- 

 ient twigs on which to preen their 

 feathers. 



All this is past now. The woods are 

 cleared, the springs diied up, the rocks 

 bare and unsightl3^ with no nesting 



place for bird and no study place for 

 boy, but a crop will soon be planted on 

 the available portions of the new 

 ground. 



Angus Gaines, 

 Vincennes, Indiana. 



The Nesting- of the American Goldfinch 

 in North-eastern Iowa. 



Two miles below Decorah, skirting 

 the bank of the upper Iowa river, is a 

 small grove of large trees, mostly cot- 

 touwoods. The ground beneath these 

 trees is covered with maple second 

 growth and a tangle of weeds, thistles 

 and climbing vines. In this place I 

 have found the American Goldfinches 

 nesting in great numbers. Surrounded 

 as it is by thistle-patches and covered 

 with thistles itself, no better place for 

 a nesting site could be imagined for 

 Goldfinches, which are sometimes called 

 Thistle Birds. Their numbers, undul- 

 ating tiight, and peculiar plaintive lisp- 

 ing notes immediately attract ones at- 

 tention. 



It was late in July, 1895 when I first 

 visited this place in quest of their nests 

 and eggs. Several nests just finished 

 were found and one set of live badly 

 incubated eggs was taken. 



On August 7th I again visited this 

 place and was rewarded by a set of six 

 fresh eggs from a nest in an ash tree 

 tiye feet from the ground. On the fol- 

 lowing dates I obtained sets of eggs 

 from the same place: August 10th, a 

 set of six; August 17th, a set of four; 

 August 19th, two sets of five and a set 

 of six. 



In 1896 I had no opportunity of visit- 

 ingthis almost colony of Goldfinches, 

 but in 1897 1 again took many sets of 

 five and six from this same place. 



The nest of the American Goldfinch 

 is a very beautiful and compact little 

 domicile. Many different materials are 

 used in their construction. Those 

 which predominate are vegetable fibers, 



