THE COLLECTOR'S MONTHLY. 



specie, proper, the Rubythroat, make 

 their home east of the Mississippi. We 

 are surprised to see that Mr. C. W. Weber 

 classes the Humming-birds east of the 

 Mississippi into two distinct species, the 

 Rnbythroat and Emerald or Green- 

 backed Humming-birds, in spite of all 

 arguments and proofs that have been 

 brought forth to the contrary. He evi- 

 dently confounded the male and female 

 of the Rubythroat into two speeies; mis- 

 taking, doubtless, the young female 

 Rubythroat for a different species which 

 he called the Emerald. 



Eleven varieties of Humming-birds re- 

 side west of the Mississippi, ten (10) of 

 which live principally beyond the Rock- 

 ies. But the one that ventures to this 

 locality excells all the rest in its magni- 

 ficient costume of brautiful colors artis- 

 tically blending with its miniature form. 

 Paul B. Haskell. 



Ashla.nd, Ky. 



Mr. C. H. Prince, 



Danielsonville, Conn. 



Dear Sir : — The article on the Ameri- 

 can Goldfinch in the September number 

 of the Collectors' Monthly, by "L. B." of 

 Des Moines, Iowa, I think is misleading. 



He gives the color of back as black, 

 and wings as bright yellow, whereas it is 

 just the reverse. Now as to exceptions 

 of his observations of nests and eggs. 



Of forty nests found and recorded by 

 myself this summer, not one was placed 

 in a thistle, and the average heght was 

 8 ft., some being 18 and 20 ft. up, placed 

 in oaks. I find nests composed mainly 

 of fibre stripped from dead milkweed, 

 some dried grass and leaf sialics, matted 

 together with poplar and willow catkins 

 and moss, lined with the down of milk- 

 weed and thistle. 



I cannot agree as to the depositing of 

 eggs two days apart. In the majority 



of cases which have come under my ob- 

 servation, an egg was deposited every 

 day after the set was begun until com- 

 pleted. 



As to disturbing the nests, I have 

 made my rounds every day this year, 

 looking into the nests, and in several in- 

 stances taking the third egg out leaving 

 two every day until they completed the 

 set, then taking the two. In only four 

 cases did the bird desert the nest. In 

 two of these the two eggs were destroyed 

 and bottom of nest pulled up. On one 

 occasion I had to pass so close to the 

 nest that my clothes would hit the bush, 

 ten to fifteen times a, day for three days. 

 The bird would nearly always be on and 

 would drop off and fly away to a neigh- 

 boring bush and would generally be on 

 the nest upon my return, only to per- 

 form the same act over again. Quite of- 

 ten on leaving the nest she would cry, 

 "go-a-way, .go-a-way." (that is, before 

 she alighted). 



In the 40 nests observed and recorded 

 by me this year, three contained 2 

 eggs, two had 3 eggs,- five had 4 eggs, 

 twenty-three 5 eggs and seven had 6 

 eggs. One set taken July 25th, meas- 

 ured as follows: 55x44,56x45,57x43, 

 57x45 and 58x43, which look remarka- 

 bly small in comparison with the other 

 sets of the series, which average about 

 67x52. Yours Oologically, 



Ed. Van Winkle. 



Caro, Mich. 



American Goldfinch. 



(Spinus tristis.) , 



IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY. 



After reading Mr. Balliet's article on 

 American Goldfinch in September num- 

 ber, if he is correct in the description of 

 the birds, there is so much difference in 

 the coloring and habits between that lo- 



