282 NOTES ON THE 



Thirty years ago, when the population of the entire State 

 was only about the same as that of one of her chief cities now, 

 this species was correspondingly represented by fewer num- 

 bers, but unlike some other species, civilization has favored its 

 multiplication probably tenfold. I have no doubt that a hun- 

 dred nests might be found in the corporation of Minneapolis 

 (after extra-limiting half that number of promising additions) 

 and possibly double that figure, while along the highway be- 

 tween it and St. Paul, in a distance of five miles, one- fourth as 

 many more would be possible to be found. I have found no 

 arboreal portion of the State except the coniferous or the 

 swampy, where the species is unrepresented. 



They commence building their nests about the 20th of May, 

 for the most beautiful description of which I shall offer no 

 apology for quoting Nuttall: "There is nothing moreremarka 

 ble in the whole instinct of our Golden Robin than the ingenu- 

 ity displayed in the fabrication of its nest, which is in fact, a 

 pendulous, cylindrical pouch of five to seven inches in depth 

 usually suspended from near the extremities of the high, droop- 

 ing branches of trees such as the elm, the pear, or appletree, 

 wild cherry, weeiDing willow, tulip- tree, or button wood. It is be- 

 gun by firmly fastening natural strings of the flax of the silk- weed 

 or swamp hollyhock, or stout, artificial threads around two or 

 more forked twigs corresponding to the intended width and depth 

 of the nest. With the same materials, willow- down, or any acci- 

 dental ravellings, strings, thread, sewing-silk, tow or wool, that 

 may be lying near the neighboring houses or around grafts of 

 trees, they interweave and fabricate a sort of coarse cloth into the 

 form intended, towards the bottom of which they place the real 

 nest, made chiefly of lint, wiry grass, horse and cow hair, 

 sometimes in defect of hair, lining the interior with a mixture 

 of slender strips of smooth vine-bark, and rarely with a few 

 feathers; the whole being of a considerable thickness, and 

 more or less attached to the external pouch. Over the top, the 

 leaves, as they grow out, form a verdant and agreeable canopy, 

 defending the young from the sun and rain. There is some- 

 times a considerable difference in the manufacture of these 

 nests, as well as in the materials which enter into the compo- 

 sition. Both sexes seem to be equally adepts at this sort of 

 labor, and I have seen the female alone perform the whole 

 without any assistance, and the male also complete this labor- 

 ious task nearly without the aid of his consort, who, however, 

 in general is the principal worker." 



