268 FRINGILLID^E : FINCHES. 



the little birds grow to the last degree confiding and 

 fearless ; one may not seldom be seen covering her 

 treasures within arm's-reach of those who sit or walk 

 upon the piazza. The eggs are no less recognizable 

 than the nest, being pale bluish-green, sparingly dotted 

 and speckled, sometimes blotched or scrawled, with 

 blackish-brown. Most of the surface has usually but 

 few markings, or none. . The markings tend to clus- 

 ter or wreathe about the larger end of the egg. The 

 smaller dots are usually quite blackish ; larger blotches, 

 when any, being browner ; and with both are com- 

 monly found less positive markings, the pigment in 

 these cases being overlaid, and so obscured by the 

 greenish shell-substance. Two sets of eggs are usu- 

 ally laid, the first early in June, or even by the latter 

 part of May, the other in July. The eggs, four or 

 five in number, average in size about 0.66x0.48. 



While it is quite proper to rate this familiar little 

 house Finch as a summer resident of New England, 

 that being the rdle it chiefly sustains in our bird-life, 

 some qualification is required to square the statement 

 by the actual facts. In the first place, some of these 

 birds enter the country by its southern border among 

 the very earliest of the migrants, appearing in Con- 

 necticut even before February closes. All the Chip- 

 birds, again, are not gone till November is nearly 

 over ; and Mr. Grinnell records that a few sometimes 

 spend the whole winter in the towns, with the English 

 Sparrow. The birds are likewise more abundant in 

 Southern than in Northern New England, and more 

 so in populated than in primitive tracts of country. 

 They are consequently among the several species who 

 have to contend with the English Sparrows in the 



