186 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— September, 1922 
A MIDNIGHT SINGING CATBIRD 
A short time ago I heard, for the first time, a Catbird’s midnight 
song. It occurred to me as being so unusual that I made a note of it. 
I returned home just at midnight on this occasion, and was in the 
act of running my car into the garage, when the Catbird’s song came to 
me. The bird was singing in some trees not far away and, although it 
had rained a little earlier in the evening, the moon was shining at the 
time. It seemed to me that it sang with all the enthusiasm that char- 
acterizes its daylight repertoire, but of that I could not be entirely 
certain. The notes were interspersed with the usual mews of the Cat- 
bird. 
Fred J. Pierce. 
Winthrop, Iowa, June 6, 1922. 
A GOLDFINCH’S PRICKLY HOME 
In going through my 1920 notes I find the following paragraph, on 
the Goldfinch’s nesting, which may be of interest to readers of the Wilson 
Bulletin: 
“ While cutting a patch of bull thistles in the latter part of August 
I discovered a Goldfinch’s nest in one of the largest ones. The nest was 
placed in a crotch formed by the prickly branches and contained five 
eggs. Though an unsightly object, to say the least, the big thistle was 
allowed to stand, and a watch was kept of the nest. Three eggs hatched 
August 27 and the remaining two August 28. The thistle probably pro- 
vided a good place in which to build a nest, but as a safe home it was 
almost a failure. On windy days the young were tossed about in much 
the same manner as the crew of a rowboat would be on the ocean. On 
several extremely windy days there was constant danger of the youthful 
mariners all being thrown out of their pitching ship, and to relieve my 
own mind, as well as theirs, I firmly anchored the thistle to the ground 
with a cord. Three young left the nest September 11 and the other two 
left it the following day. This seemed to me a rather late nesting date 
for the Goldfinch.” 
Ferd J. Pierce. 
Winthrop, Iowa. 
[In 1899 I found a, nest of Goldfinches in a patch of bull thistles on Sep- 
tember 4, near Grinnell, Iowa. This nest contained four fresh eggs on that 
date. In twelve days the eggs were hatched, and after two weeks in the 
nest the young were strong enough to leave the nest and its vicinity. — Ed.] 
A MID-APRIL BLIZZARD AND ITS EFFECT ON BIRD-LIFE 
Unseasonable snowstorms probably cause more discomfort to bird- 
life than any other element our migrating birds are forced to face. The 
birds’ sense of migration tells them when their northern homes are ready 
for them and they hasten there, but occasionally the weather man plays 
a contemptible trick by changing the order of things, and the birds have 
to suffer. 
This was what happened in this part of Iowa in mid-April, 1921. It 
rained all day April 15, and that evening, with much hard thunder and 
