282 _ NOTES ON THE 
Thirty years ago, when the population of the entire State 
was only about the same as that of one of her chief cities now, 
this species was correspondingly represented by fewer num- 
bers, but unlike some other species, civilization has favored its 
multiplication probably tenfold. I have no doubt that a hun- 
dred nests might be found in the corporation of Minneapolis 
(after extra-limiting half that number of promising additions) 
and possibly double that figure, while along the highway be- 
tween it and St. Paul, in a distance of five miles, one-fourth as 
many more would be possible to be found. I have found no 
arboreal portion of the State except the coniferous or the 
swampy, where the species is unrepresented. 
They commence building their nests about the 20th of May, 
for the most beautiful description of which I shall offer no 
apology for quoting Nuttall: ‘There is nothing more remarka 
ble in the whole instinct of our Golden Robin than the ingenu- 
ity displayed in the fabrication of its nest, which is in fact, a 
pendulous, cylindrical pouch of five to seven inches in depth 
usually suspended from near the extremities of the high, droop- 
ing branches of trees such as the elm, the pear, or appletree, 
wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip-tree, or buttonwood. It is be- 
gun by firmly fastening natural strings of the flax of the silk-weed 
or swamp hollyhock, or stout, artificial threads around two or 
more forked twigs corresponding to the intended width and depth 
of the nest. With the same materials, willow-down, or any acci- 
dental ravellings, strings, thread, sewing-silk, tow or wool, that 
may be lying near the neighboring houses or around grafts of 
trees, they interweave and fabricate a sort of coarse cloth into the 
form intended, towards the bottom of which they place the real 
nest, made chiefly of lint, wiry grass, horse and cow hair, 
sometimes in defect of hair, lining the interior with a mixture 
of slender strips of smooth vine-bark, and rarely with a few 
feathers; the whole being of a considerable thickness, and 
more or less attached to the external pouch. Over the top, the 
leaves, as they grow out, form a verdant and agreeable canopy, 
defending the young from the sun and rain. There is some- 
times a considerable difference in the manufacture of these 
nests, as well as in the materials which enter into the compo- 
sition. Both sexes seem to be equally adepts at this sort of 
labor, and I have seen the female alone perform the whole 
without any assistance, and the male also complete this labor- 
ious task nearly without the aid of his consort, who, however, 
in general is the principal worker.” 
