92 PINE GOLDFINCH. 



Ei/ys, four in number, bluish-white in color, sparcely dotted and lined with black. Dimensions, from '65 x '45 to 

 71x-50. 



HABITS, 



Near the banks of the Miami River, not far from Fort Dallas was a small spring. It 

 was overarched by guava trees, which had grown wild from lack of cultivation, while a 

 convolvulus had hung its verdant, flower-starred festoons from the branches. Giant ferns 

 with broadly pinnated fronds, five feet in length, grew on the margin and rank grasses 

 waved beside them. Thus the sparkling Avaters were surrounded by a luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion, never seen in the North, yet there was room beneath for the birds to find a conven- 

 ient bathing place. The Goldfinches soon found it,evcn though it did present a very differ- 

 ent aspect from the willow-margined brooks, to which they had been accustomed in a more 

 boreal clime, and, when the sun was high, visited the shady nook in flocks. I had long 

 been familiar with this species in Florida, but I was surprised to hear the call note of the 

 Pine Finch so far from its usual range. There were but a few, however, and they did not 

 remain very long. 



The Pine Goldfinch, like the preceding species, is very irregular in its migrations, 

 and the instance related above is the only one which has come under my observation of its 

 occurrence anywhere in Florida. Even'in Massachusetts it is not found regularly in any 

 numbers; for example, during the winter of 1859- GO it was abundant but was not com- 

 mon again until 1868, when it remained until the following June. When in New Eng- 

 land it feeds largely on birch and fir seeds, thus is not dependent upon weeds which are 

 often covered with snow. Its migrations are therefore regulated solely by the food sup- 

 ply, and when the seed crop, of the trees mentioned, fails it moves southward in search of 

 other means of sustenance. 



As spring advances the Pine Finch retreats to the evergreen forests of the mountain- 

 ous districts where it is much more at home than in the cultivated sections. They breed 

 in these wild, elevated, regions; Mr. Ridgway's nest, already described, was found in the 

 Wahsatch Mountains at an altitude of 9000 feet. It was placed on the horizontal limb of 

 a fir, twenty feet from the ground. This was taken June 23, but as Mr. Brewstcr found 

 it breeding at the White Mountains, New Hampshire, in August, it is extremely probable 

 that this species, like the Goldfinch, is obliged to await the ripening of certain seeds before 

 attempting to rear its young, which will account for local variation in the time of nesting. 



The call notes and song of the Pine . Finch are quite similar to those of the preceding 

 species, but have such a peculiar, husky, intonation that they may be readily distinguished 

 at all times. 



GENUS IV. JDNCO. THE SXOW BIRDS. 



GEN. Cn. Bill, pointed. Wings , quite long . Tail, sliyhtly forked, but with the outer feathers a little shorter than the 

 others. Coracoids, shorter than (he top of keel, which is somewhat higher than one half the width of sternum. Size, not 

 very small. 



All the species are dull in color, unstreaked, above or below, in the adult stage of plumage. The outer tail feathers 

 are always white. 



There is scarcely a genus, throughout the entire Family, where the species so completely intergradc, in some stages of 

 plumage, as the present; indeed it is extremely difficult to decide whether some should be considered as species or only as 

 local races. 



