FRINGILLID^E — THE FINCHES. 4.^*J 



specimens. They were in small troops on a rugged hillside covered with a 

 sparse growth of junipers and stunted pines, feeding in company with the 

 Foospiza hilineata. Judging from their actions, and from the fact that none 

 but males were taken, I presume they were breeding in the vicinity. I found 

 some difficulty in securing specimens, partly owing to tlie broken nature of 

 the locality, and partly to the birds' timidity in the unaccustomed presence 

 of man. Those that were shot were all found to have the lesophagus as well 

 as the gizzard crammed with seeds. They constantly uttered a plaintive 

 lisping whistle as they gathered food, or as they llew from one tree to another, 

 but their song did not strike my ear as precisely the same as that of the 

 Goldfinch. These specimens were all in what I take to be perfect plumage, 

 although the back was mixed with olive and black in nearly equal propor- 

 tions, and the black of the pileum did not reach below the eyes to cut off 

 the yellow under eyelid from the other yellowish parts of tlie head ; thus 

 closely resembling true psaltria. 



" Upon my arrival at Fort Whipple in July, I found birds of this type 

 abundant, and took a good many during the two Ibllowing months, when 

 they disappeared, and I saw none until about the first of IMay. A small 

 ravine close by the fort, choked with a rank growth of weeds, was a favorite 

 resort ; there the birds could be i'ound at nearly all times in season, in large 

 troops, feeding in company with Chipping S})arro\\s, and the Spizclla atrigu- 

 laris. They were very tame during the latter part of the summer, would 

 only rise when very closely a])proached, when they flew in a liesitating man- 

 ner a short distance, and then pitched down again among the M'eeds to 

 resume their busy search for food. In tlieir undulating flight they utter 

 their peculiar note, generally with each impulse of the wings, and keep up 

 a continual chirping when feeding ; but I did not hear their true song at this 

 season. Some of the specimens taken were very young birds, and the sjie- 

 cies unquestionably breeds here, although I never succeeded in finding a 

 nest. 



" 1 should not omit to add, that wliilst at Santa Fc, New ^Mexico, I saw 

 caged birds that were thriving well, and apparently reconciled to confine- 

 ment." 



A nest of this bird, obtained near Camp Grant, Arizona, by Dr. Palmer, is 

 a flat and shallow structure, having a diameter of three inches, and a height 

 of one and a quarter. The cavity is only a slight depression. This nest is 

 made of a felting of various materials, chiefly the cotton-like down of the 

 cottonwood-tree and other soft vegetable matter, fine stems of grasses, frag- 

 ments of mosses, and various other similar materials, lined with finer mate- 

 rials of the same. Except in their slightly smaller size, the eggs are not 

 distinguishably different from the preceding. 



