191-t] Grinnell : Mammals and Birds of the Colorado Valley 165 



only small companies were noted, either on the river bottom proper 

 or out on the desert. As the season advanced linnets were more fre- 

 quently noted in pairs, often along the deep, narrow ravines and 

 precipitous hillsides where the mountains reached the neighboi'hood of 

 the river. Nests with eggs were found ensconced among the tangled, 

 sharp-pointed twigs of old smoke-bashes on desert washes both at 

 Kiverside Mountain, March 18, and Ehrenberg, March 26. Four miles 

 below Potholes the bir'ds were common on the bottom lands, affecting 

 especially those cotton wood trees laden with mistletoe clumps. Five 

 miles above Laguua, a linnet's nest was found in a cavity in the side 

 of the main shaft of a saguaro. Twenty miles north of Picacho a 

 nest with small young was found April 14 on the thorny upper branch 

 of an ironwood. 



The series of twenty-eight skins secured (nos. 13061-13088) shows 

 the desert linnets to be in no percepti1)le way different from those of 

 the coast region of California. 



There is in the Museum a skin (no. iieO) taken by J. G. Cooper 

 at Fort Mohave, January 26, 1861. 



Astragalinus psaltria hesperophilus Oberholser 



Green-backed Goldfinch 



More or le.ss common all along the river; evidently resident. First 

 noted on the California side opposite The Needles, several, March 2. 

 On the Arizona side at the foot of The Needles, March 4 to 6. large 

 flocks were congregated in the central portions of extensive dense 

 mesquite thickets where, perched from three to four feet above the 

 ground, they were certainly safe from marauders; here they sang 

 volubly in chorus until dusk settled. During the day they were scat- 

 tered out over the hills feeding on the liower-heads of Pcritijlc cmoryi. 

 California side, at Chemehuevis Valley, common, both in the palo 

 verde washes back on the mesa, and in the mesquites and willows near 

 the river; noted similarly, still in flocks, at Riverside Mountain, 

 March 16 to 20, and above Blythe, March 23. On the Arizona side in 

 the vicinity of Ehrenberg there were but few noted, and these only in 

 pairs along the mesa margin of the river Ijottom : on March 25 two 

 partially constructed nests were found each four feet above the ground 

 in arrowweeds. 



