ECCENTRICITY OF THE GOLDFINCH. ^ 105 



day in the summer — after nearly all its companions 

 were done with domestic cares, in fact — it was early 

 alleged by Avriters that this eccentricity was owing to 

 lack of proper food for the young yellowbirds previous 

 to that time. Long ago, Mr. Augustus Fowler, a keen 

 observer who lives near Danvers, Massachusetts, 

 wrote to Wilson Flagg : " The cause of this delay 

 is, that they would be unable to find in the spring 

 those milky seeds which are the necessary food for 

 their young." And on page 90, of his Birds of 

 Florida, Mr. Maynard says : " I have always found 

 this species feeding exclusively upon seeds, and as 

 they cannot find sufiicient of this food earlier in the 

 season, breed late." Now I must confess to having 

 fewer actual facts to oppose to this theory — while 

 putting small faith in it — than I ought to have ; and 

 I quote it here as an example of my own and others' 

 ignorance in regard to a perfectly familiar and always 

 accessible bird, — ignorance which sharp-sighted oolo- 

 gists ought speedily to clear up. 



So far as records exist, they show that the date of 

 egg-laying is highly variable. It seems to occur 

 most early (as in the case of all transcontinental 

 species) on the southern Pacific coast, where the time 

 is late in May ; at Sacramento and in Utah early in 

 June, at Philadelphia "generally from the 10th to 15th 

 June" (Gentry) : at Trenton, N. J., Dr. C. C. Ab- 



