m'cAULEY on birds of the red river of TEXAS. 663 



FRINGILLIDxE. 



Chrysomitris TRISTIS, (L.) Bp. — American Goldfinch or Yellowhird. 



Observed along tbe Washita, and Wolf, McClellan, and Mulberry 

 Creeks. 



Passerculus bairdi, (And.) Coues. — BaircVs Bunting. 



Very few spiecimens noted. Personally all my searches for a nest of 

 this species were unsuccessful, the one secured having been found by 

 one of the escort, Private Ruby, of Company B, Nineteenth Infantry, a 

 German, who was a very enthusiastic oologist, having had in the " old 

 country" a collection exceeding seven hundred sets of eggs of the Eu- 

 ropean avi-fauna. The nest, found on the ground, is circular, apparently 

 closely built, but withal very frail. Without, the bird had, after choos- 

 ing its home, placed about a number of old leaves, chiefly good speci- 

 mens of skeletonized ones, about which to build its nest. This was 

 composed of slight pieces of the bark of grape-vines, which clustered in 

 profusion about the trees near by, such grasses as were suitable, an'd 

 an inner lining of finest rootlets or fiber. No horse-hair or parts of 

 buffalo-wool were used in its building. It contained but three eggs, 

 freshly laid, which averaged 0.80 by O.GC. The ground-color is a dull 

 white, bespeckled very irregularly, but a little more closely at larger 

 than smaller end, with markings of faint reddish-brown of a light and 

 a darker shade. 



Fevgjea CASSINI, (Woodh.) Bd, — Cassin's Finch. 



First met with in the thickets along the Palo Duro. It was over an 

 hour until, after crossing and recrossing the stream and following in its 

 quick nervous flight, the author of the peculiarly attractive song, for 

 which this warbler is noted, was firvSt observed. Leaving camp at early 

 dawn — absoUitely necessary in long marches during the hot season — and 

 traveling uj) the stream, the pleasant notes of these birds could be heard 

 as we rode by the thickets everywhere skirting it. It was heard often 

 afterward, and occasionally seen, chiefly in the dense underbrush along- 

 Red River, near where it enters its canon. This begins abruptly, not far 

 beyond the Junction of the two streams by whose union it is formed. 



