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ig 



): j ' | Brrotold, .1 Study oj the House Finch 



53 



Table No. i. 

 Number <>i nests oompleted and containing al l( a I one egg 



March 



April 



May 

 June 

 July 

 I Pnrecorded 



Total 



The material u ed in nest building are not always gathered in 

 the neighborhood of fh<- nest, for the females often go consider- 

 able distances for nesting stuff, though suitable material could be 

 gat lured closer iii, hand. 



The chances are that a pair uses an old uest more than once, 

 though this is not easy to determine, simple as h might seem. One 

 pair, the female of which had a white feather in it s tail, selected a 



new site for their second, ami also for their third hrood, which 

 establishe , in any event, that this easily identified pair did vol 

 use the old nests for new I woods. 



On several occasions, when English Sparrows have so hurried a 

 pair of Pinches as to stop incubation before the writer could dispo e 

 of the invaders, the same Pinches, presumably, have built a second 



nest over the first, one and its <'KK S .' that, however, the builders of 



the first and second nests were identical, the writer has never been 



able to detenu i lie heyond don I it. Four attempts, extending over a 

 period of sixteen weel. , ;it lie I building in the same box were 



ob erved by the writer in 1908, the birds seemingly being identical 



in nil four attempts, lait not identified with certainty. One and 



tin ame pair, identified positively, has been detected building in 



one box for a while, only to stop and begin anew in another; 

 probably due to interference by English Sparrows. 



