474 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



feet from the f»roiiTKl. Than the nest of our Cfohlfinch we have no more beau- 

 tiful specimen t'itheiof the hasket in sliape or the ielteil in structure. Sym- 

 metrical in form, delicately and beautifully woven, and in«,'eniously anj firmly 

 fastened around the forked twi^js with which it is interlaced, it is an exqui- 

 site example of arcliitectural hcauty and hnish. A l)eautirul specimen from 

 Wisconsin mav be taken as tv]>ical. It measures three inches in diameter 

 and two in heiirht. The cavitv is one and a half inches wide at the rim, and 

 the deptli is the same. The base of this nest is a comminijlin^ of soft vege- 

 table wof)l, very tine stems of dried gr.isses, and tine strips of bark, all being 

 in very tine shreds. The sides, rim, and general exterior of the nest is made 

 up, to a large extent, of line slemler vegetable fibres, interwrought with 

 white and maroon-colored vegetable wool. These materials are closely and 

 densely felted together. The inner nest is softly and thoroughly lined with 

 a softer felting made of the plumose appendages or pappus of the seeds of 

 composite plants. 



The eggs, usually five, rarely six in numl>er, are of a uniform bluish-white, 

 sharply pointed at one and roundetl at the other end. They measure from 

 .^o to .67 of an inch in length and from .50 to .55 in breadth. Dr. Cooper 

 gives their measurement as .GO by .50 ; but of the contents of seven nests 

 before me not an euu is less than .65 in length, and but one so small as .50 

 in breadth. 



A nest of this Finch, built in a voumr elm-tree in Hingham, eight feet from 

 the ground, was begun July 27, finished and the fii-st egg laid August 1. By 

 the 4th five eggs had been deposited, and on the 16th they had all been 

 hatched. 



Chrysomitris psaltria, var. psaltria, Boxap. 



BOCKY MOUNTAIir GOLDFINCH ; ABKANSA8 GOLDFINCH. 



FringillapsaUrui, Say, Long's Expd. R. Mts. II, 1823, 40. — Ari). Om. Biog. V, 1839, 

 85, pi. cccxeiv. Fri ivj ilia (CunlucUs) psaltria, Bon. Am. Om. I, 182r», 54, pi. vi, f. 3. 

 CardiKlis2)saUria, Aur>. 8yn. 1839, 117. — In. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 134, pi. clxxxiii. 

 Chrysoiiiitrv( psaltria, Bp. List, 1838. — Ib. Consp. 1850, 516. —Gam BEL, .Tour. A. N. 

 S. 2d series I, 1847, 52 (female). — Baoid, Birds N. Am. 1858, 422. — (Joopeu, Om. 

 Cal. I, 168. 



Sp. CnAR. Male. Uppor parts and sides of head and neck olive-jrreen. Hood, but 

 not slides of head below eyes, lores (or aurioulars ?), upper tail-coverts, winirs. and tail black. 

 Beneath l>right yellow. A band .across the tips of the jrreater coverts, the ends of nearly 

 all the quills, the outer edcfes of the tertiaries, the extreme bases of all the primaries ex- 

 cept the outer two, and a Ion? rectangular patch on the inner webs of the outer three 

 tail-feathers near the middle, white. Female with the upper parts crenerally. and the sides 

 olive-green ; the Avintrs and tail brown, their white marks as in the male. Length, 4.25 ; 

 wing, 2.40 ; tail, 1.8."). Yoiing lik«' the female, but wing-bands more fulvous. 



IIab. Southern Roeky Mountains to the co.nst of California ; north to Salt Lake City 

 (June 19 ; Rinr.wAv), and Siskiyou Co., Cal. (Vuillk) ; south to Sonora (Arispe, Feb. 

 26 ; E. S. Wakefield). 



