^48 PASSERES. FRINGILLAD^. 



heard any note proceed from it, but tsip, tsip, tseep^ 

 tseep, loud and shrill, repeated at short intervals, as 

 it hops from twig to twig. 



Early in June I found a nest of the Yellow-back. 

 Over a gap leading out of a negro yard into the 

 high road, at the back of Content cottage, hung 

 down a dead limb of a large logwood, that was 

 almost covered by bunches of Tillandsia usneoides. 

 Just at the extremity of the depending twigs, not 

 more than five feet from the ground, and in the 

 very path frequented by the people and the animals, 

 in the midst of a large cluster of the tillandsicBy 

 the Finch had constructed her nest. It was a neat 

 dome, somewhat like the head-part of a cradle, 

 formed of dried grass, with a few bits of white 

 cotton interwoven, but profusely set on the outside 

 with the tillandsia, the down of which gave it a 

 very woolly appearance. It contained three eggs, 

 white, splashed with dull red, having a tendency to 

 form a crown round the large end. On this, as well 

 as another occasion, the male was seen to enter 

 the nest, as well as his mate, so that both proba- 

 bly assist in incubation. In the evening I went 

 cautiously to the spot, and putting a gauze net 

 suddenly before the nest, secured the female, which 

 darted out into the net. Having identified her, I 

 let her go, but in the morning, early, when I went 

 again to the nest, there were no eggs wdthin, but 

 fragments of the shell of one lay on the ground 

 at some little distance, which must have lain there 

 sometime, for they were cleaned out by ants, and 

 dry inside. "Was this done by the female at find- 



