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 i 
walked up the deserted road the i 
stillness of nature was suddenly 
the lively chattering of a flock of G 
which sprang up from the roadsi 
approach, where they had been g 
breakfast scant and dry from th 
o-rass 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. 
With graceful evolutions and 
1 gentle mingling of happy voices 
flock gathered in a tree top by t ' 
the very same tree where a paj 
number during the heats of las 
built themselves a nest and essay 
a family. It was a broad branchn 
one of its far-reaching arms extei 
over the carriage track, and there 
dense foliage they built the bear 
Travellers in their wagons could 
raised themselves up and looke 
situated as it was in full view of er 
As* iKt.if onn mrP ^ 
„fr T 
cirl A 
-X 
-5C 
During the last twenty days of August I 
found and examined eighteen nests of the 
American Goldfinch, or Thistle-bird. All 
were situated in untrimmed hedges of osage 
orange, growing from eight to fourteen feet 
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 
hedges. The nests were usually placed 
about three-fourths the height of the hedge, 
on an obliquely ascending branch, fastened 
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 
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- 
other nest contained many fibres of a yel- 
lowish brown bark, had no hair in its lining, 
and its cavity was larger and deeper. One 
st uo'poanoo ’sih Wjo TuJziuy^'Stft 
jo sqqnq arp Suiujaouoo hopnuuojui jo punj 
aquyut pouqu uu passassocrspi -suauipads 
mqu jo qoxeas ui Xqjuooj sta ui saqsiuut 
pun spooAv aqi qSnorq; SuiaWp uaas aq 
4 
f 
6 Ame rican Gold BWhn c 
O.&O. IX. Oct. 1884. p. I tY. 
H 
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4 
Bixda Tioga Co, N.j fi AidQJa Coring, 
~ 181. American Goldfinch or Tliistlebird. 
Common. Seems to desire the companionship 
of man rather than the country, although it 
is occasionally found there. These birds make 
their arrival from the south about the last of 
March, and do not commence building until 
June. The nest is placed in a maple tree oi 
willow hush, 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, anti 
measure 32-48 in. by 1-2 in. As the middle oi 
October draws near these birds congregate in 
immense flocks (at this time they live on 
seeds) and depart for the south. 
O, &o» Jane. i8yQ» p.©3 
68 
