found this to be true. I have even discovered nests with sets of fresh eggs in the 

 beginning of September. The statement made by some authors that the Goldfinches 

 commence nestbuilding early in June in the Northern States is erroneous. Of the 

 hundreds of nests which I have examined during the last thirty years, none was found 

 before the second week of July. Of course the farther south the earlier the birds begin • 

 to breed. I have seen nests in south-western Missouri in the last days of June and 

 early in July, the difference between the two localities being about two weeks. They 

 always prefer to select their nesting sites near dwellings, especially in apple, pear, and 

 plum trees of the orchard and in dense sugar maples, elms, and box-elders planted for 

 shade around the house, or, sometimes, in high mock-orange and upright honey-suckle 

 bushes. It is also found in Lombardy poplars in gardens and on the road-side, in trees 

 and shrubs in pastures and meadows, but never in the forest and on dry hills far from 

 water. During the warm summer weather the Yellow-birds are very fond of bathing, 

 and they are frequently seen on stones and rocks in shallow brooks for this purpose. 

 The nest is rarely placed higher than from seven to ten feet, although I have seen some 

 fifteen to thirty feet from the ground. They usually' select an upright crotch, in w^hich 

 they build their beautiful and warm structure very ingeniously. During the days of my 

 youth, when orchards were rare in Wisconsin, I discovered many nests in slender ash 

 saplings in the meadows about five or six feet from the ground. Of late I found in 

 several cases as many as five to six nests in one large apple orchard. The birds lived 

 harmoniously together, and the males were often seen flying around in company among 

 the thistles, sunflowers, and hemp stalks, singing diligently in the bright summer 

 w^eather. 



The very artistic and warm structure is composed exteriorly of fine hemp and 

 a^clepias fibers, tender grasses, shreds of cedar and grape-vine bark, and is lined with 

 a very thick layer of soft thistle down. Aug. 3, 1889, I found a very characteristic 

 nest in the orchard of my parents in Sheboygan Co., Wis. It was built in an upright 

 crotch of an apple tree, and contained six white eggs with a faint bluish tint. The 

 outside was mainly composed of sheep's wool and several short flower spikes of a 

 species of vervain. The lining consisted of a few horse hairs and thistle wool. A 

 second nest was found Aug. 14 near the first one, and a third one the same day only 

 about forty steps from the second. All these nests were built in the same style and of 

 the same material. It usually takes six days before such a nest is finished, and twelve 

 days more before the eggs are hatched. The young leave the nest when about ten or 

 twelve days old. The nest is easily found, but where the birds do not feel safe they 

 cunningly hide their domicile among dense branches and leaves. Nests in south-western 

 Missouri cannot be compared in beauty and artistic skill to those in Wisconsin. They 

 are usually built of fine grasses and bark-strips, and the interior is lined with the same 

 material, lacking the compactness and beauty of northern nests entirely. The eggs, 

 four to six in number, are bluish- white ; in very rare cases they are marked slightly 

 with fine brown spots. 



In late August and in September waste places, abounding in thistles, are alive with 

 Goldfinches. They usually perch on the seed heads of these weeds until the stalks bend 

 almost to the ground. In all imaginable attitudes they pick out the seeds, and at such 



