- GOLDFINCH. 89 
quickly repeated twit or twit-it. It is incessantly uttering this note, both 
when flying through the air and as it sits on or clings to the tall stems of 
thistles and other weeds. The call-note of the male to the female sounds 
something like the word eaglet. 
It is not improbable that the Goldfinch in many cases pairs for life. In 
the depth of winter the birds are often seen in pairs, and as the spring 
advances the little parties break up and in pairs search out their nesting- 
sites. The bird at this season often takes up its quarters in a garden or 
an orchard, sometimes in a grove quite near to a house, where it remains 
until its young are strong upon the wing. ‘The site usually selected for 
the nest is in an apple- or a pear-tree, especially the former; and a branch 
which is covered with moss or lichen is generally preferred. The bird will 
also build in a chestnut- or a beech tree, sometimes at the extremity of a 
long drooping branch, and when in such a situation it is often quite in- 
accessible. It less frequently selects a site in a whitethorn hedge or in the 
evergreens in a shrubbery. It is one of the commonest birds in the lower 
valleys of the Parnassus, and breeds in great numbers in the olive-trees 
between the site of the temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Gulf of Lepanto, 
especially in the village gardens. ‘The nest is a charming piece of bird- 
architecture. It is much smaller than that of the Chaffinch, but is to a 
certain extent made on the same model. It usually measures from 1+ to 
2 inches in inside diameter, and is about 1 inch deep. It is often made 
of moss, lichens, vegetable down, fine roots, and grass-stems, and lined 
plentifully with feathers and down and a few long hairs. Nests taken 
in Greece and Asia Minor were almost entirely made of stems of a 
plant with round flat seed-cases attached, strengthened by rootlets and 
lined with vegetable down. Some nests are almost entirely made of 
down and bits of worsted with a few roots, without any feathers. The 
eges of the Goldfinch are four or five in number, and are laid by the 
middle of May. ‘They are greenish white in ground-colour, spotted and 
streaked with purplish brown and with underlying markings of violet- 
grey. The spots vary considerably in intensity of colour, and on some 
eggs are almost black. Some specimens are only scratched and indis- 
tinctly marked with reddish brown, others are almost spotless. The 
larger end of the egg is usually the most spotted, where the markings form 
an irregular zone. Some eggs are much more boldly streaked than others, 
and the streaks are longer. The eggs vary in length from ‘7 to ‘62 inch, 
and in breadth from ‘53 to ‘48 inch. Goldfinch’s eggs can generally be 
distinguished from Linnet’s and Greenfinch’s, which they much resemble 
in colour, by their smaller size ; whilst from those of the Lesser Redpole 
they are easily told by their much lighter ground-colour. From those of 
the Citril Finch, Serm, and Siskin they are indistinguishable, except in 
perhaps being blunter and a trifle larger. 
