246 FRINGILLID^E I FINCHES. 



than its near relative. In Connecticut, Mr. Merriam 

 states that it is a rare summer resident a statement 

 well attested by the fact that he was only able to in- 

 clude the species in his paper on the strength of a 

 specimen received just in time from Dr. F. W. Hall, 

 who shot it in worn breeding plumage, at Killing- 

 worth, Middlesex Co., July i8th, 1873 (Rev. B. Conn., 



1877, p. 37). The Massachusetts record is more ex- 

 tensive than that relating to any other State {Allen, 

 Pr. Essex Inst., iv, 1864, p. 71 ; Samuels, Rep. 

 Sec'y Mass. Board Agric., 1863, appendix, p. xxiv ; 

 Allen, Am. Nat., iii, 1869, p. 632; Maynard, Nat. 

 Guide, 1870, p. 117 ; Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Club, iii, 



1878, p. 118; Allen, Bull. Essex Inst., x, 1878, p. 

 118). Mr. Deane has recently published an interest- 

 ing notice of the breeding of the species in New Hamp- 

 shire (Bull. Nutt. Club, iii, 1878, p. 39). The bird 

 had not been reported north of Massachusetts when 

 Mr. C. F. Goodhue, of Webster, N. H., placed his 

 observations at Mr. Deane's disposal. He found the 

 bird in Webster, April i7th, 1864, and in Boscawen, 

 April 26th, 1875. On the i6th of August, 1877, sev- 

 eral pairs were observed in a meadow in Salisbury, 

 where they were breeding, and a nest containing five 

 nearly fledged young was discovered in a bunch of 

 grass growing in about two inches of water ; it was a 

 rather bulky structure of coarse grasses, with a lining 

 of finer ones. The birds did not seem alarmed, but 

 remained singing in some low bushes when the ob- 

 server approached them within a few yards. An in- 

 stance of how common such birds as these may really 

 be in comparison with their apparent rarity, is given 

 by Mr. Ridgway (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, p. 238), 



