'-.i'Z The Wilson Bulletin — No. 82. 



a land of plenty. But in the summer, when they are bur- 

 dened with the care of a family and have to find insects for 

 their young, the Goldfinches seek out some spot that com- 

 bines the advantages of concealing the nests with that of at^ 

 tracting the insects that must be obtained for their growing 

 young. 



The nests that I have found were usually in some such 

 general situation as this. A patch of woods is bordered by 

 a slashing in which numerous small elm and hickory sap- 

 lings mingle with large thorn bushes of about the same size. 

 Beyond the slashing lies a small area filled with weeds, and 

 beyond that a great red clover field. In such a slashing of 

 two or three acres, there may be from two to half a dozen 

 Goldfinch nests. /\nother favorite place is in the midst of a 

 bed of thistles or of a berry-patch surrounded by woods, and 

 sometimes nests are found in a lone tree in the middle of a 

 pasture, overgrown with weeds. 



The average height of the nest from the ground is from 

 six to ten feet. By far the majority of nests that I have 

 seen were at that height. In slashings they are almost al- 

 ways placed so. Nests in thistles or berry-bushes are usually 

 only three or four feet up, but when the nest is placed in a 

 lone tree or in a tall tree in the edge of woods it is sometimes 

 from twenty-five to forty feet up. Messrs. Baird, Brewer 

 and Ridgeway, in their " North American Land Birds," say 

 that the nest is " very rarely higher than ten feet," which 

 suggests that eastern birds may build lower than ours, on 

 the average. 



According to my observations and reading, the nest is in- 

 variably placed at a fork, and usually in a crotch. Most nests 

 will be found in an upright, two or three pronged crotch and 

 bound to each fork at the rim and along the sides. An in- 

 teresting variation from this type was found, in which the 

 nest was bound to both forks of a two-pronged crotch and 

 the bottom supported by a twig, the whole nest being on one 

 side of the crotch and not in it. Occasionally the nest will 

 be found saddled on an almost horizontal limb, but always 



