268 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
of the dusty white speckled eggs and the helpless 
little fledgelings which are often crushed beneath 
the heel of the unwitting passer-by. 
“ The chewinks belong to the Finch family, 
and they have many finch-like traits. For ex¬ 
ample, watch them do their leaf-scratching: One 
jump into the air, a quick motion forward, and 
how the leaves do fly! You know perhaps that 
the finches are the Smiths of Birddom. The 
family is so exceedingly large that it comprises 
about one-seventh of the bird world. In truth, 
one is quite safe in naming a bird a finch if it 
doesn’t fit readily into any other family. The 
sparrows all belong to the finch tribe, so do the 
redpolls, the crossbills, our dear little grosbeak 
neighbors, and the buntings, j uncos, and snow¬ 
flakes numbered among our winter visitors. For 
sociableness and good cheer the chewinks rival 
their nearest of kin the goldfinch and that won¬ 
derful blue ‘ air-flower ’ the indigo bunting, 
though they have not the musical talent of these 
little friends, nor their skill in architecture either, 
for that matter. Mrs. Goldfinch’s nest you already 
know. It is a marvel of weaver’s art, being a 
deeply hollowed cup of vegetable down and plant 
fiber, lined plentifully with soft thistle-down, and 
placed about twenty feet from the ground in the 
crotch of a fruit or shade tree. The indigo’s nest 
is built in the bushes, or perhaps hung from a 
