GOLDFINCH—WOODPECKER— QUAIL— FLYCATCHER— HUMMING-BIRD. 



131 



it is changed into a quick cheer, cheer. This Goldfinch is even 

 more gregarious than the common American Goldfinch {C. tristis), 

 large flocks associating together as early as the beginning of June. 

 His habits greatly resemble the C. trtstis. He was first discovered 

 in Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in 1823, and is a 

 rather rare bird. 



Lawrence's Goldfinch. {Chrysomitris laivrenci.) 



Fig. 2, Male. Fig. 3, Female. 



This little bird is very common throughout California, where it 

 frequents bushy hillsides, eating the buds and seeds of the low 

 bushes with great avidity. They are very gregarious, associating 

 in large flocks. This Goldfinch's favorite breeding place is in the 

 fork of a bush or stunted oak, and is composed of fine grasses, 

 lined with hair and feathers. It is a very ingenious and beautiful 

 piece of mechanism, about one and a half inches in height, and 

 three inches in diameter. The walls are closely matted together 

 with feathers, vegetable and animal wools, and are soft, warm, and 

 thick. The eggs run from four to five in number, and vary greatly 

 in size, ranging from .80 by .46, to .58 by .45 inches. The eggs 

 are either pure white or faintly touched with a delicate green tint. 

 His song is very sweet and pleasing, some of his notes resembling 

 those of a Canary, though more subdued. He has been seen in 

 San Francisco as late as December, and probably winters in the 

 very southern parts of California. 



Gardner's Woodpecker. (Picus gairdneri.) 



Fig- 4- 



The habitat of this Woodpecker is confined to the Pacific coast 

 of the United States, extending back to the Rocky Mountains. 

 His plumage grows darker, and with less of white, as he ap- 

 proaches Western Oregon and Washington Territory. He com- 

 mences to excavate his nest about the middle of May, selecting 

 some smallish tree for the purpose. He firsts cuts a hole in the 

 solid wood as circular as if described with a pair of compasses. 

 From this, the hole is excavated, running down in an oblique di- 

 rection from six to eight inches. This hole is roomy and capacious, 

 the walls very smooth and polished. The eggs are from five to six 

 in number, nearly spherical in shape, pure white, and measure 

 .96 by .85 inches. He is a very familiar and unsuspicious bird, 

 paying little or no attention to man ; he is also a very industrious 

 bird, employing all his time in searching the bark of trees, for the 

 purpose of ferreting out the insects which hide within their crevices. 

 His flight is undulating, and he greatly resembles in all his ways 

 the Downy Woodpecker of the East. 



California Valley Quail. (Lophortyx californicus.) 



Fig. 5, Male. Fig. 6, Female. 



This beautiful species is found in all the valleys of California 

 and Oregon. Its favorite abiding places are the prairies and grain 

 fields of the cultivated districts, and the thickets which border upon 

 streams, where coveys ranging from twenty to one hundred will 

 frequently be met with, except during the breeding season, when 

 they are only found in pairs. Like his eastern brother, he is very 

 fond of sitting upon some stump, and in the early morning whist- 

 ling out his peculiar call. This call resembles kuck-kuck-kuck- 

 ka ; the first three notes repeated rapidly, the last prolonged with a 

 falling inflection. His nest is made in the open field, or at the foot 

 of some small shrub, and is composed of grasses arranged with 

 more or less care. Sometimes no attempt at nest-making is under- 

 taken, the eggs being laid on the bare sand. They vary in num- 



ber, ranging from twelve to sixteen ; they also vary in size and 

 markings. They are sharply pointed at one end and rounded at 

 the other, the ground color of a creamy white, with markings of 

 all shades of olive, chestnut, and drab, and measure from 1.30 by 

 1. 00, to 1. 18 by .95 inches. In Wilkes' expedition, specimens 

 were taken alive in Oregon, and by a route equal to the circumfer- 

 ence of the globe, were taken to Washington, where they produced 

 one brood of young. Dr. Newberry tells us that they are suscep- 

 tible of domestication, and would be a pretty ornament for parks 

 and lawns in the Atlantic states, where they would probably thrive. 

 He also says that as a game bird they are inferior to the eastern 

 Quail, though, perhaps, of equal excellence for the table. It does 

 not lie as well to the dog, and does not afford as good sport. It 

 also takes a tree more readily. In 1857 it was introduced into 

 Washington Territory, where it increased largely. In hunting, 

 when flushed from the ground, it invariably flies to the trees, if in 

 a wooded country, where it squats so closely lengthwise on a branch 

 that it is hardly distinguishable. An attempt has been made to in- 

 troduce them into Long Island, but they were all exterminated by 

 gunners after the first season. 



PLATE LXXXVIII. 



Black Ptilogonys — Blaok-crested Flycatcher. (PAaenopepIc nitens.) 



Fig. 1. 



This species is to be met with in the valley of the Colorado and 

 southward. Its powerful and well-modulated song is very pleasant 

 to the ear. Cooper says : This bird, which is in habits and appear- 

 ance much more like the Flycatchers than the Waxwings, is yet 

 connected with the latter more closely in structure, and has even 

 some sweet notes, indicating a greater affinity to the Oscines than 

 to the Clamatores, 



They prefer the vicinity of the trees on which the mistletoe 

 grows, as its berries form much of their food during the whole 

 year, but they also watch for insects from the summit of some low 

 tree, occasionally flying after one and pursuing it in a zigzag course, 

 very much like the Sayornis nigricans. They almost constantly 

 utter a loud cry of alarm or warning, and when pursued are very 

 wild, requiring much artifice in winter to shoot them. If wounded, 

 they conceal themselves so fully in the thick tufts of mistletoe as to 

 be found with much difficulty. 



When at rest, they have the same habit as the Pewees of jerking 

 the tail and erecting their crest. When flying, the white spot on 

 the spread wings becomes very conspicuous ; and in the deserts 

 along the Majoor river, every thicket of mesquite was frequented 

 by one or more of them, some being constantly on the wing in their 

 gyrating flight after insects, giving some appearance of life to those 

 otherwise desolate regions in winter. 



Mango Humming-bird— Black-throated Humming-bird. 



mango.) 



Fig. 2. 



{Lampornis 



The Mango, we learn from M. Boucier, though one of the most 

 widely-spread members of its family, is only to be met with in hot 

 localities (straggler to Florida), and whenever it occurs in the in- 

 terior of a country, it is invariably in the warmest valleys. In dis- 

 position it is wild and quarrelsome, for although it lives in societies, 

 several always being together, it is continually engaged in fighting 

 with its companions and in driving away all other birds that ap- 

 proach the trees in which it is breeding. The adult does not as- 

 sume its perfect plumage vintil the end of the second year, and in 



