THE OOLOGIST. &t0 



105 



deep or dense, no grove too pleasant, 

 no yard too near the haunts of man, 

 no quiet stream too lonely or sad, no 

 city too busy, no swamp tco impene- 

 trable. They love to sport alike in 

 the forest and the orchard, nor are 

 they choice as to whether they sip 

 the nectar from the honeysuckle 

 around the house or the wild flowers 

 in the swamp. The old story, that 

 these birds do not gather nectar from 

 the flowers unless on the wing, no 

 longer holds good, for on several oc- 

 casions I have seen them alight on 

 the petals of the flowers or some 

 nearby twig, and feast at their lei- 

 sure. 



Nest-building begins during the 

 first few days in May and continues 

 until well along in June, or until the 

 first of July. I have seen young yet 

 in the nest in the middle of July, in- 

 dicating that two broods are reared 

 in a season. This observation is 

 borne out by Nuttall and other wri- 

 ters of authority. 



The nest is an exceedingly neat 

 piece of workmanship. It is composed 

 of plant-down with, perhaps, some 

 spiders' webs, shaped into a kind of 

 cottony felt, placed on a limb project- 

 ing horizontally or drooping from the 

 trunk. If placed on the drooping 

 limb the nest is built with perpendic- 

 ular walls, which makes the sides of 

 it away from the trunk much lower 

 than the other. I have often seen 

 nests with one wall protruding half 

 an inch below the other, but they 

 were evenly arranged on top, with 

 neat walls and a neat cup-shaped cav- 

 ity to receive the eggs. All nests ex- 

 amined by myself were covered on 

 the exterior with lichens, similar in 

 color to that of the limb on which the 

 nest was built. The size of the limb 

 seems to have something to do with 

 the size of the nest, large nests be- 

 ing found on large limbs and small 



nests on small limbs. The nest may 

 be placed on the limb of any conven- 

 ient tree, only a few feet from the 

 trunk, or near the end of some long 

 swinging limb. I have seen them in 

 all kinds of situations, from 8 feet 

 of the ground to 60 feet above terra 

 firma. I have found them on the 

 limbs of beeches, oaks and maples, 

 by the quiet roadway, in the heart of 

 the woods and occasionally in a grove. 

 I have, yet, my first nest to see in a 

 yard, on any kind of a tree. 



The number of eggs laid is invar- 

 iably two. During the latter part of 

 September they bid us farewell and 

 start on their journey to spend the 

 winter. 



R. PEARCE SMITHWICK, 

 Norfolk, Va. 



The House Finch. 



I realize that to most readers of 

 the Oologist this is a common bird, 

 both as regards its listing among col- 

 lectors and the low rates at which 

 "Linnet" eggs are held. 



But there are many common birds 

 whose habits are passed over by col- 

 lectors in their rush to find some- 

 thing rare, so that those outside the 

 bird's range can learn little of its 

 life from reading. 



Like the poor, the house finch is 

 with us in Southern California, and 

 where it appears in summer there it 

 will be found in winter, though large 

 local migrations are sometimes made. 

 Slightly larger than the song sparrow, 

 dull gray brown in color save for the 

 head, rump and breast of the male, 

 which is crimson, turning into deeper 

 shades as the breeding season comes 

 on, the linnet is one of the few birds 

 of the Southwest which has thorough- 

 ly accommodated itself to man's im- 

 provements on nature. Here in Los 

 Angeles, a city of at least 1S0.O0O 

 population, the house finches are 



