August Nests and Birds. 
.OGIST. 
Queer Occupant of a Gold 
Nest. 
It was a bright winter morning 
thermometer dallying among the 
ures the fields white with their wi 
coats and silence almost unbroken 
the chirp of a Snowbird to break 
quiet, but as I passed into the s 
walked up the deserted road the ; 
stillness of nature was sudden y 
the lively chattering of a flock of G 
which sprang up from the roads! 
approach, where they had been g 
breakfast scant and dry from th 
grass and weeds whose tops extern 
the snow banks that covered th 
There is a cheeriness and life aboi 
fused chattering of a flock of G 
that gives a charm to the bleak 
though there is little in the no 
winter garb of the bird to remind 
sweet song or the gaily painted so 
scattered the down from the th 
last summer. 
i with graceful evolutions anc 
! gentle mingling of happy voices 
flock gathered in a tree top by t > 
the very same tree where a pai 
number during the heats of las 
built themselves a nest and essay 
a family. It was a broad branchu 
one of its far-reaching arms extei 
over the carriage track, and there 
dense foliage they built the bea 
Travellers in their wagons could 
raised themselves up and looke 
situated as it was in full view of m 
f 
\ 
6 American C old Finr.i,,. ,, 
ifi- <?. ■£***U/ , (?crT^w . 
O.&O. IX. Oct. 18cJ'i. p. /*V. 
^ During the last twenty days of August I 
found and examined eighteen nests of the 
^ American Goldfinch, or Thistle-bird. All 
J were situated in untrimmed hedges of osage 
to orange, growing from eight to fourteen feet 
(^J high, and within a radius of two miles from 
^ town. Other observers note this bird’s nest- 
ing in orchards, especially in young apple 
^ trees, but I carefully explored all the or- 
chards in this neighborhood without finding 
a single nest of the Goldfinch except in 
r hedges. The nests were usually placed 
sA about three-fourths the height of the hedge, 
G'b on an obliquely ascending branch, fastened 
■jJ around it and smaller outgrowing twigs. One 
^ _ nest was saddled on a horizontal limb and 
was not supported by smaller twigs, though 
^ several thorns aided in giving a firm base to 
^ the structure. There is much variation in 
^ the construction of the nests, especially in 
/'I the external depth, which ranges from two 
to nearly four inches. One nest, made of 
fine bark fibres, was well rounded and closely 
woven, and covered without with fragments 
\ of gossamer, which gave it a grayer appear- 
ance than most of the other nests. Within 
was a layer of whitish horse hair, and within 
the latter was the downy bed of thistle. An- 
0 ther nest contained many fibres of a yel- 
lowish brown bark, had no hair in its lining, 
and its cavity was larger and deeper. One 
nest had much dried “ pepper-grass ” woven 
into its walls. The female sitting upon the 
nest is not easily alarmed, but when driven 
from her home she will perch upon an ad- 
jacent limb and utter the syllables “fee fee]' 
oft repeated in a very plaintive tone. No 
nests were found containing more than five 
eggs, which seemed to be the usual full com- yf, * Lor ins', 
plement. In all cases the eggs were fresh, linch or Tliistlebird. 
except one set of four and another of three 3 ire tlie companionship 
heavily incubated. Three nests contained ie country, although it 
, , , , t ^ 3 i*e. These birds make 
young recently hatched, and several more about th0 last of 
nests were in various stages of construction. 5 . iiime n 0e building imti i 
June. The nest is placed in a maple tree or 
willow bush, and is composed of thistledown 
and horse hair. It is deeply hollowed; the 
measurement of nest is 1 1-4 in. in width by 
1 3-4 in. in depth. The nest is also very neat 
and compact. The eggs, usually four in num- 
ber, are of a beautiful bluish-white color, and 
measure 32-48 in. by 1-2 in. As the middle of 
October draws near these birds congregate in 
immense flocks (at this time they live on 
seeds) and depart for the south. 
Q a &0, XV, Jane, 1890, p*S3 
68 
