274 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



It is but little you learn of a bird in this irregular 

 way, — having its nest and eggs shown you. How 

 much more suggestive the sight of the goldfinch going 

 off on a jaunt over the hills, twittering to its plainer 

 consort by its side ! 



The goldfinch nest of this forenoon is saddled on a 

 horizontal twig of an apple, some seven feet from ground 

 and one third of an inch in diameter, supported on one 

 side by a yet smaller branch, also slightly attached to 

 another small branch. It measures three and one half 

 inches from outside to outside, one and three quarters 

 inside, two and one-half from top to bottom, or to a 

 little below the twig, and one and one half inside. It is 

 a very compact, thick, and warmly lined nest, slightly 

 incurving on the edge within. It is composed of fine 

 shreds of bark — grape-vine and other — and one piece 

 of twine, with, more externally, an abundance of pale- 

 brown slender catkins of oak (?) or hickory (?), mixed 

 with effete apple blossoms and their peduncles, show- 

 ing little apples, and the petioles of apple leaves, some- 

 times with half-decayed leaves of this year attached, 

 last year's heads of lespedeza, and some other heads 

 of weeds, with a little grass stem or weed stem, all 

 more or less disguised by a web of white spider or cater- 

 pillar silk, spread over the outside. It is thickly and 

 very warmly lined with (apparently) short thistle-down, 

 mixed with which you see some grape-vine bark, and 

 the rim is composed of the same shreds of bark, catkins, 

 and some fine fibrous stems, and two or three hairs (of 

 horse) mixed with wool (?) ; for only the hollow is lined 



