BIRDS OF KANSAS. 425 



within the shelter afforded by my inverted kyak, as it lay upon 

 the staging close by the house, and nests were found all about 

 in bushes or tufts of grass, indifferently, according to the locality. 

 The material used by them is as varied as the sites chosen, and 

 appears to consist of such material as comes first to hand. 

 One, for instance, is composed entirely of an irregular mass of 

 fine, dry twigs, with a very few Ptarmigan feathers for lining; 

 another is a fine, compact, cup-shaped structure of dry, coarse 

 grass, warmly lined with a finer material of the same, united 

 with feathers and the cotton obtained from willows and other 

 plants." 



Eggs three to six (usually four or five), .68x.48; pale bluish 

 green, spotted with orange brown chiefly about the larger end, 

 with occasionally a few streaks of a darker color brown to 

 black; in form, oval. 



GENUS SPINUS KOCH. 



"Bill rather acutely conic, the tip not very sharp; the culmen slightly con- 

 vex at the tip; the commissure gently curved. Nostrils coucealed. Obsolete 

 ridges on the upper mandible. Tarsi shorter than the middle toe; outer toe 

 rather the longer, reaching to the base of the middle one. Claw of the hind toe 

 shorter than the digital portion. Wings and tail as in Acanthis. The colors 

 are generally yellow, with black on the crown, throat, back, wings and tail varied 

 sometimes with white. The females want the bright markings of the male. 

 This genus differs from Acanthis in a less acute and more curved bill, a much 

 less development of the bristly feathers at the base of the bill, the claw of the 

 hind toe shorter than its digital portion, the claws shorter and less curved and 

 attenuated, and the outer lateral toes not extending beyond the base of the mid- 

 dle claw." 



Spinus tristis (LINN.). 



AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 

 PLATE XXVII. 



Resident; abundant in winter; quite common in summer. 

 Begin laying late in June to middle of July. They nest late, 

 in order that the seeds upon which they chiefly raise their young 

 may form and begin to mature by the time the little ones are 

 hatched. 



B.313. E. 181. C. 213. G. 89, 208. U. 529. 



HABITAT. Temperate North America generally. 



SP. CHAB. "Male: Bright gamboge yellow; crown, wings, and tail black. 

 Lesser wing coverts, band across the end of greater ones, ends of secondaries 



