The Nest of the Goldfinch. 25 



and is often used for the framework, as stated above. The 

 outer bark is of a silvery-gray color, and when finely shred- 

 ded and packed down looks much like dirty thistledown. Un- 

 der the lens, however, its curling tendency and splittings and 

 flat shape of the strands is easily seen. 



This " wool " is the felting used in most cases. In some 

 nests a similar substance has been prepared from grass-stems, 

 while in the nest mentioned above (No. 6), in which the en- 

 tire framework was of grapevine bark, the felting is very 

 scanty, consisting of cobwebs and a few fine grass-stems. 

 In another nest (No. 7) the framework is mainly of grass- 

 stems, while the felting contains fine rootlets, cobwebs, a 

 little " vegetable wool " and considerable real wool, evidently 

 picked from the barbed-wire fence of a nearby sheep pasture. 



The lining should be, of course, thistle-down, according to 

 all precedents. However, in only one of the eleven nests I 

 examined was there any considerable amount of it, and in 

 only one other was there any trace of it. Two nests, each 

 built near a swamp, were lined with the yellowish down of 

 the cat-tail, and the rest were lined mainly with very fine 

 " vegetable wool." This " vegetable wool " looked so much 

 like dirty thistledown that I was at first deceived as to its 

 nature, but on making a microscopic examination the differ- 

 ence could be readily seen. The wool was in such fine shreds 

 that its source can be only a subject of conjecture. Most 

 was of a silvery-white, greatly resembling dirty thistledown, 

 and this, I think, came from the thin outer bark of the milk- 

 weed. Other specimens, showing a yellowish tinge, were prob- 

 ably made up of shredded grass-stems, while another owed 

 its pinkish tinge to an admixture of some kind of shredded 

 bark. In the nest (No. 6) so conspicuously of grapevine 

 bark and lacking in milkweed " products," the lining was ex- 

 tremely scanty, being composed of fine strips of grapevine 

 bark, mixed with a little " wool," probably from grass-stems. 

 In nest No. 5, on the other hand, built where milkweeds were 

 many and grapevines few, the lining was of extremely fine 

 " milkweed wool," and in some places was fully three- 

 quarters of an inch thick. 



