54 BRIGHT PEATHERS. 
sure to be present—thistle-down. | The Goldfinch.adorns the walls of her 
boudoir with its glistening silk, and makes her bed of the elastic gos- 
samer that floats through the summer air.” 
‘As I have remarked, the date of egg-laying varies greatly. It 
seems to occur earliest on the Southern Pacific coast, late in May ; at 
Sacramento and in Utah about the middle of June ; at Trenton, N. J., 
Dr. Abbott tells me he found their eggs from May 17 to August 3; 
Gentry puts the time at Philadelphia as ‘generally from the 1oth to 
15th of June; in New England, Samuels gives June 10, as the earliest 
date, while Dr. Brewer says it is usually past July 10, before their 
nests are constructed, and September before the broods are able to 
fly ; in Michigan, eggs are recorded from May 20 to September 25, 
the first week in August being regarded at the height of the season, 
It is evident, then, that though the Goldfinch breeds late, as a rule, yet 
sometimes it nestles quite as early as the majority of birds. Upon this 
point we need more observations. That the same individuals may and 
do vary greatly in the time from year to year 1 have no doubt ; why, it 
is impossible, perhaps, to guess. That they have the power of retain- 
ing their eggs, or rather of repressing their desire to lay to a much 
greater extent than is supposed to be the case with most birds, is proved 
not only by the long delays which have been known to take place in 
their nest-building, with a successful fade, but also from the fact that 
those specimens dissected in April show an equal readiness and develop- 
ment of ovaries and testes with those shot late inthe summer. I doubt 
whether anything more rational than caprice can be assigned as the 
cause of their anomalous irregular breeding; the usual explanation, 
scarcity of proper food for the young in early summer, has no support- 
ing evidence in what we know of the bird’s diet, and is distinctly proved 
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