RAE AMERICAN ‘GOLDFINCH. 55 
of no weight by the fact that frequently some Goldfinches do nest early, 
while others postpone it until very late, and this in the very same 
district.” 
“The eggs of this species are five, and often six, in number, and in 
color faint bluish-white immaculate, the blue tint appearing less strongly 
in empty specimens. Measurements of an average clutch were: 66x.51, 
64 X.50, 63 x.50 and 62x.50 of aninch. Occasionally, as noted by Dr. 
Abbott and others, spotted examples are seen—the markings faint and 
scarce—but this is very rare and exceptional. The elaborately blotched 
eggs described by Wilson, Richardson and some other early authors, 
are surely erroneously identified.” 
‘‘About ten days appears to be the period of incubation. As no 
second brood (invariably ?) is to be anticipated, the young are diligently 
attended by both parents, who exhibit the most clamorous distress when- 
ever danger threatens. Cases are recorded of their returning not only 
to the same locality two or three successive summers, but even con- 
structing a new nest upon the foundation of the old. I have seen such 
a.structure, and observed not only that the height was twice its diameter, 
but that the materials of the second were precisely similar to that used 
in the first nest. It is said, also, that this species will bury under a 
‘second story’ the parasitic egg of the Cow-bird, when it is so unlucky 
as to have one thrust upon it, as does the other Yellow-bird, Dendreca 
“Estiva. When almost a fortnight of age, the young leave the nest, 
and soon the little family groups combine into the merry flocks that we 
see gaily playing about the sere reeds in autumn, or drifting away in a 
cloud of thistle-down before the October breeze.” —/d7id. 
Little can be added, from my own observations, to the foregoing 
account. I have, however, been frequently interested and amused at 
