Chrysomitris tristis.
1521 ♀
Gen. Char. Bill rather acutely conic, the tip not very sharp; the culmen slightly convex at the tip; the commissure gently curved. Nostrils concealed. Obsolete ridges on the upper mandible. Tarsi shorter than the middle toe; outer toe rather the longer, reaching to the base of the middle one. Claw of hind toe shorter than the digital portion. Wings and tail as in Ægiothus.
The colors are generally yellow, with black on the crown, throat, back, wings, and tail, varied sometimes with white.
The females want the bright markings of the male.
This genus differs from Ægiothus in a less acute and more curved bill, a much less development of the bristly feathers at the base of the bill, the claw of the hind toe shorter than its digital portion, the claws shorter and less curved and attenuated, and the outer lateral toes not extending beyond the base of the middle claw.
The species exhibit many differences among themselves, especially in the size and shape of the bill, which have been made the basis of generic distinctions. They may be distinguished as follows:—
Species and Varieties.
A. No streaks anywhere on plumage; base of tail-feathers black or white. Sexes dissimilar. (Chrysomitris.)
a. No yellow on the wings.
1. C. tristis. Inner webs of tail-feathers always whitish terminally (except in Juv.). ♂. Forehead and crown, wings and tail, deep black; rest of plumage, including the back, rich lemon-yellow; tail-coverts white. ♀. Body grayish above, dingy whitish beneath, stained with yellow; no black on head; wings and tail duller black. Juv. Fulvous-umber above, with markings of reddish-ochraceous on the wings; beneath, dilute-yellow washed with fulvous. Hab. Whole of temperate and warm North America.
2. C. psaltria. Inner webs of tail-feathers never whitish terminally. ♂. Beneath yellow, including the lower tail-coverts; above black, with or without olive-green on the back. ♀. Without any black, the yellow duller.
Tail with white on inner webs; tertials with large white spots.
♂. Auriculars, nape, back, and rump olive-green. Hab. Rocky Mountains of United States … var. psaltria.
♂. Auriculars black; nape, back, and rump green clouded with black. Hab. Arizona … var. arizonæ.
♂. Auriculars, nape, back, and rump entirely black. Hab. Middle America … var. mexicana.
Tail without any white on inner webs; tertials without white spots.
♂. Auriculars, nape, back, and rump wholly black. Hab. Panama and New Granada … var. columbiana.
b. Terminal half of outer webs of wing-coverts and secondaries yellow.
3. C. lawrencii. Prevailing color ashy, lighter beneath. ♂. A large patch on the breast, the rump, and most of the outer surface of the wing, yellow; forehead, crown, lores, all round base of bill, chin, wings (beneath the yellow), and tail black. ♀. Lacking the black, and with the yellow only indicated. Hab. California and Southwestern Arizona.
B. Whole body and head thickly streaked; bases of tail-feathers yellow. Sexes alike. (Astragalinus.)
4. C. pinus. Above brownish-gray, beneath white, with conspicuous dusky streaks everywhere; two light bands on the wing; bases of secondaries and primaries yellow. Hab. Whole of North America.
PLATE XXII.
1. Hesperiphona vespertina, var. vespertina. ♂ H. B. Ter., 16770.
Three species of Chrysomitris, given by Mr. Audubon, are to be erased from the list: C. stanleyi, C. yarrelli, and C. magellanica. If, as he states, he killed specimens of the latter in Kentucky, they must have belonged to the C. notata of Dubus, a Mexican species, not since met with in our limits. The other two were given him as coming from California,—a statement we now know to be incorrect, both belonging to South America.
Chrysomitris tristis, Bon.
YELLOW-BIRD; THISTLE-BIRD.
Fringilla tristis, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 320.—Wils. Am. Orn. I, 1808, 20, pl. i, f. 2.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 172; V,, 510, pl. xxxiii. Carduelis tristis, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 96.—Aud. Birds Am. II, 1841, 129, pl. clxxxi.—Max. Cab. Journ. vi, 1858, 281. Chrysomitris tristis, Bon. List, 1838.—Newberry, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route; Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VII, IV, 1857, 87.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 421.—Cooper & Suckley, 197.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 167. Astragalinus tristis, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 159 (type). Carduelis americana, (Edwards,) Sw. & Rich. F. B. A. II, 1831, 268. Golden Finch, Pennant. American Goldfinch, Edwards. Chardonneret jaune; Chardonneret du Canada; Tarin de la Nouvelle Yorck, Buffon.—Ib. Pl. enl., pl. ccii, f. 2, pl. ccxcii, f. 1.—Samuels, Birds N. Eng. 288.
Sp. Char. Male. Bright gamboge-yellow; crown, wings, and tail black. Lesser wing-coverts, band across the end of greater ones, ends of secondaries and tertiaries, inner margins of tail-feathers, upper and under tail-coverts, and tibia white. Length, 5.25 inches; wing, 3.00. Female. Yellowish-gray above; greenish-yellow below. No black on forehead. Wing and tail much as in the male. Young. Reddish-olive above; fulvous-yellow below; two broad bands across coverts, and broad edges to last half of secondaries pale rufous.
Hab. North America generally.
In winter the yellow is replaced by a yellowish-brown; the black of the crown wanting, that of wings and tail browner. The throat is generally yellowish; the under parts ashy-brown, passing behind into white.
There are no observable differences between eastern and western specimens.
Chrysomitris tristis.
Habits. The common American Goldfinch is found throughout the greater portion of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Sir John Richardson met with it in the fur regions, where it is one of the tardiest of the summer visitors, and whence it departs early in September. The specimen described by him was taken June 29. At the extreme South it is not uncommon, according to Dresser, around San Antonio, and Dr. Woodhouse found it abundant both in Texas and in the Indian Territory. Dr. Coues did not find it in Arizona, nor does Sumichrast give it as a bird of Vera Cruz. Dr. Newberry found this Finch quite common throughout his route to the Columbia, this sweet songster, he states, having been a constant source of pleasure in the interior both of California and Oregon, far from the haunts of men, where everything else was new and strange. But Dr. Suckley, though he looked carefully for this species about Puget Sound, in the most appropriate situations, was unable to find any, and did not believe that any existed there. Dr. Cooper states that it is, however, quite abundant on the Columbia and along the coast near its mouth.
The last-named writer states that this species is a constant resident in all the western parts of California, but he met with none on the Colorado. They become rare on the coast at the Columbia, but farther in the interior are found as far north as latitude 49°. They breed as far south as San Diego, but seem to avoid the hot interior valleys, as well as the mountains. Their favorite resorts are where thistles and other composite plants abound, and also groves of willow and cottonwood, upon the seeds of which they feed largely. In winter the seeds of the buttonwood supply their chief subsistence.
The common Goldfinch was seen in abundance by Mr. Ridgway only in the vicinity of Sacramento City, associated with the Carpodacus frontalis, and often nesting in the same tree. In the interior this species was rarely seen, and only one specimen was secured in the Truckee Valley in May, and not noticed afterwards. It was, however, found breeding in the Uintah Mountains, where its nest and eggs were obtained. The nests procured by Mr. Ridgway were all found about June 6, except one, ten days later, showing that these birds are four or five weeks earlier in their breeding on the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast. In the Uintah Mountains they were breeding, as at the East, in July.
The Goldfinch is to a large extent gregarious and nomadic in its habits, and only for a short portion of the year do these birds separate into pairs for the purposes of reproduction. During at least three fourths of the year they associate in small flocks, and wander about in an irregular and uncertain manner in quest of their food. They are resident throughout the year in New England, and also throughout the greater portion of the country, their presence or absence being regulated to a large extent by the abundance, scarcity, or absence of their favorite kinds of food. In the winter, the seeds of the taller weeds are their principal means of subsistence. In the summer, the seeds of the thistle and other plants and weeds are sought out by these interesting and busy gleaners. They are abundant in gardens, and as a general thing do very little harm, and a vast amount of benefit in the destruction of the seeds of troublesome weeds. As, however, they do not always discriminate between seeds that are troublesome and those that are desirable, the Goldfinches are unwelcome visitors to the farmers who seek to raise their own seeds of the lettuce, turnip, and other similar vegetables. They are also very fond of the seeds of the sunflower.
Owing possibly to the scarcity of proper food for their young in the early summer, the Goldfinches are quite late before they mate and raise their single brood. It is usually past the 10th of July before their nests are constructed, and often September before their broods are ready to fly.
The song of the Goldfinch—very different from their usual plaintive cry or call-note, uttered as they are flying or when they are feeding—is very sweet, brilliant, and pleasing; most so, indeed, when given as a solo, with no other of its kindred within hearing. I know of none of our common singers that excel it in either respect. Its notes are higher and more flute-like, and its song is more prolonged than that of the Purple Finch. Where large flocks are found in the spring or early summer, the males often join in a very curious and remarkable concert, in which the voices of the several performers do not always accord. In spite of this frequent want of harmony, these concerts are varied and pleasing, now ringing like the loud voices of the Canary, and now sinking into a low soft warble.
During the warm summer weather the Goldfinch is very fond of bathing, and the sandy shelving margins of brooks are always their favorite places of resort for this purpose. I do not think they ever raise more than a single brood in a season in New England, and are in this somewhat irregular, depositing their eggs from July 10 to September, as it may happen.
They usually select a small upright tree, such as a young elm, apple, or pear, or a tall shrub, for their nest, which they rarely place higher than ten feet from the ground. Than the nest of our Goldfinch we have no more beautiful specimen either of the basket in shape or the felted in structure. Symmetrical in form, delicately and beautifully woven, and ingeniously and firmly fastened around the forked twigs with which it is interlaced, it is an exquisite example of architectural beauty and finish. A beautiful specimen from Wisconsin may be taken as typical. It measures three inches in diameter and two in height. The cavity is one and a half inches wide at the rim, and the depth is the same. The base of this nest is a commingling of soft vegetable wool, very fine stems of dried grasses, and fine strips of bark, all being in very fine shreds. The sides, rim, and general exterior of the nest is made up, to a large extent, of fine slender vegetable fibres, interwrought with white and maroon-colored vegetable wool. These materials are closely and densely felted together. The inner nest is softly and thoroughly lined with a softer felting made of the plumose appendages or pappus of the seeds of composite plants.
The eggs, usually five, rarely six in number, are of a uniform bluish-white, sharply pointed at one and rounded at the other end. They measure from .65 to .67 of an inch in length and from .50 to .55 in breadth. Dr. Cooper gives their measurement as .60 by .50; but of the contents of seven nests before me not an egg is less than .65 in length, and but one so small as .50 in breadth.
A nest of this Finch, built in a young elm-tree in Hingham, eight feet from the ground, was begun July 27, finished and the first egg laid August 1. By the 4th five eggs had been deposited, and on the 16th they had all been hatched.
Chrysomitris psaltria, var. psaltria, Bonap.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOLDFINCH; ARKANSAS GOLDFINCH.
Fringilla psaltria, Say, Long’s Exped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 40.—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 85, pl. cccxciv. Fringilla (Carduelis) psaltria, Bon. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 54, pl. vi, f. 3. Carduelis psaltria, Aud. Syn. 1839, 117.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 134, pl. clxxxiii. Chrysomitris psaltria, Bp. List, 1838.—Ib. Consp. 1850, 516.—Gambel, Jour. A. N. S. 2d series I, 1847, 52 (female).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 422.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 168.
Sp. Char. Male. Upper parts and sides of head and neck olive-green. Hood, but not sides of head below eyes, lores (or auriculars?), upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail black. Beneath bright yellow. A band across the tips of the greater coverts, the ends of nearly all the quills, the outer edges of the tertiaries, the extreme bases of all the primaries except the outer two, and a long rectangular patch on the inner webs of the outer three tail-feathers near the middle, white. Female with the upper parts generally, and the sides olive-green; the wings and tail brown, their white marks as in the male. Length, 4.25; wing, 2.40; tail, 1.85. Young like the female, but wing-bands more fulvous.
Hab. Southern Rocky Mountains to the coast of California; north to Salt Lake City (June 19; Ridgway), and Siskiyou Co., Cal. (Vuille); south to Sonora (Arispe, Feb. 26; E. S. Wakefield).
With quite a small series of specimens, a perfect transition can be shown from the typical C. psaltria, as above described, to the C. columbianus, the opposite extreme (see table, page 471). The former is the most northern, the latter the most southern form; arizonæ and mexicana, intermediate in habitat, are also as strikingly so in plumage. The difference is in the quantity of the black, this color predominating over the olive of the back and the white of wings and tail, in proportion as we go southward. There cannot, upon the whole, be any doubt that they are all specifically the same. The females can scarcely be distinguished.
Habits. The Arkansas Finch was first discovered in Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and described by Say in 1823. It has since been met with in New Mexico and in various parts of California. Dr. Cooper did not find this species in the Colorado Valley, although Dr. Kennerly met with it along Williams Fork, in New Mexico. Dr. Woodhouse did not see it in his route to the Zuñi River, either in New Mexico or the Indian Territory.
Dr. Kennerly met with these birds in the month of February. He found them very abundant all along the banks of the Bill Williams Fork. They were feeding on the young buds of the cottonwood trees. At that season they were in small flocks, and the only note he heard from them was a short chirp, as they hopped from twig to twig, or flew from one tree to another.
Dr. Heermann states that he found these Finches abundant in the northern mining regions of California, frequenting and feeding in the same localities with the C. lawrencii, and often associated with the Pine Finch. He adds that, while thus associated, he shot a large number of both species. They seemed to be employed, at the time, in picking out the fine gravel mixed in the mud used as mortar for a chimney, flying away at each discharge of the gun, but returning, in a few minutes, to the same place.
Mr. Audubon regarded this species as accidental in Louisiana, having procured individuals a few miles from Bayou Sara.
The Arkansas Goldfinch was found by Mr. Ridgway among the Wahsatch Mountains, his attention being at once drawn to it by its curious notes. He first met with it in “City-Creek Cañon,” near Salt Lake City, where individuals of it were frequently found mixed in with flocks of C. pinus. The note of this bird is remarkable for its power and very sad tone. The ordinary note is a plaintive, mellow, whistling call, impossible to describe, and so inflected as to produce a very mournful effect. When the bird takes to flight, it is changed to a simple cheer, similar to the anxious notes of the male Agelaius phœniceus, uttered when its nest is disturbed. This species was quite rare, not being so common as either C. pinus or C. tristis. Its nest was found in Parley’s Park, Wahsatch Mountains, June 22, in the top of a willow-bush near a stream.
At San Diego, and along the whole coast border of California, Dr. Cooper thinks that this Finch is rather rare. In the interior valleys they seem to be quite common. They also breed in small numbers in the Coast Range, near Santa Cruz. He states that their habits are very similar to those of the C. tristis, though they feed more on the ground, and more upon weeds than on trees, and are even more gregarious, remaining associated in flocks up to the first of June. Their song greatly resembles that of the common Goldfinch, but is much fainter.
Dr. Cooper never met with their nest, nor has he received any description of it. Mr. Xantus found one, containing four eggs, on the branch of an Obione, about ten feet from the ground. This was at Fort Tejon, the first of May. Dr. Canfield has also found their nests, in considerable numbers, near Monterey. They are built in the forks of trees, in the same manner with the tristis, are structures of remarkable beauty, and evince great skill in the architects. They contain usually four or five eggs. Except in size, their eggs greatly resemble those of the C. tristis, being of a uniform greenish-white, unspotted, of a rounded-oval shape, sharply pointed at one end. They measure .60 by .50 of an inch.
Chrysomitris psaltria, var. arizonæ, Coues.
ARIZONA GOLDFINCH.
Chrysomitris mexicana, var. arizonæ, Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 170.
Sp. Char. (♂ 37,092, Fort Wingate, Arizona, June 28, 1864.) Above, including auriculars, glossy black, with a faint bluish reflection; nape, back, and rump much mixed with olive-green, this rather predominating; larger coverts broadly tipped with grayish-white; tertials, with almost the entire exposed portion of the outer webs, white; a patch on base of primaries, and the inner webs of the tail-feathers, except the ends, white. Beneath entirely lemon-yellow. Wing, 2.50; tail, 1.70; culmen, .35; tarsus, .50.
Hab. Southern boundary of Arizona and New Mexico, extending southward into Mexico, and gradually changing into mexicana, and northward into psaltria.
The specimen described above is from a series collected in Arizona by Dr. Coues: these examples vary in the relative amount of black and olive on the back, some having one, and others the other color predominating; the type selected is one which represents about the average plumage of this species from Arizona.
Habits. Dr. Coues found these birds abundant summer residents of Arizona, where they are said to arrive the last of April and to remain until the middle of September. In August the males are stated to assume the dull plumage of the females. In autumn they become decidedly gregarious, and feed almost exclusively upon buds and seeds. He thinks they are not so numerous in the southern portions of the Territory. In a letter received from him he remarks:—
“This bird was found to be common in New Mexico near Fort Wingate, at the eastern base of the main chain of mountains. I first observed it on the 28th of June, when I found quite a number together, and secured several specimens. They were in small troops on a rugged hillside covered with a sparse growth of junipers and stunted pines, feeding in company with the Poospiza bilineata. Judging from their actions, and from the fact that none but males were taken, I presume they were breeding in the vicinity. I found some difficulty in securing specimens, partly owing to the broken nature of the locality, and partly to the birds’ timidity in the unaccustomed presence of man. Those that were shot were all found to have the æsophagus as well as the gizzard crammed with seeds. They constantly uttered a plaintive lisping whistle as they gathered food, or as they flew from one tree to another, but their song did not strike my ear as precisely the same as that of the Goldfinch. These specimens were all in what I take to be perfect plumage, although the back was mixed with olive and black in nearly equal proportions, and the black of the pileum did not reach below the eyes to cut off the yellow under eyelid from the other yellowish parts of the head; thus closely resembling true psaltria.
“Upon my arrival at Fort Whipple in July, I found birds of this type abundant, and took a good many during the two following months, when they disappeared, and I saw none until about the first of May. A small ravine close by the fort, choked with a rank growth of weeds, was a favorite resort; there the birds could be found at nearly all times in season, in large troops, feeding in company with Chipping Sparrows, and the Spizella atrigularis. They were very tame during the latter part of the summer, would only rise when very closely approached, when they flew in a hesitating manner a short distance, and then pitched down again among the weeds to resume their busy search for food. In their undulating flight they utter their peculiar note, generally with each impulse of the wings, and keep up a continual chirping when feeding; but I did not hear their true song at this season. Some of the specimens taken were very young birds, and the species unquestionably breeds here, although I never succeeded in finding a nest.
“I should not omit to add, that whilst at Santa Fé, New Mexico, I saw caged birds that were thriving well, and apparently reconciled to confinement.”
A nest of this bird, obtained near Camp Grant, Arizona, by Dr. Palmer, is a flat and shallow structure, having a diameter of three inches, and a height of one and a quarter. The cavity is only a slight depression. This nest is made of a felting of various materials, chiefly the cotton-like down of the cottonwood-tree and other soft vegetable matter, fine stems of grasses, fragments of mosses, and various other similar materials, lined with finer materials of the same. Except in their slightly smaller size, the eggs are not distinguishably different from the preceding.
Chrysomitris psaltria, var. mexicana, Bonap.
BLACK GOLDFINCH; MEXICAN GOLDFINCH.
Carduelis mexicanus, Swains. Syn. Birds Mex. Phil. Mag. 1827, 435.—Wagler, Isis, 1831, 525. Chrysomitris mexicanus, Bp. Consp. Av. 1850, 516 (quotes Aud. tab. 427).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 423, pl. liv, f. 1. Astragalinus mexicanus, Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 159.—Ib. Journ. für Orn. 1861, 7 (with synonymy).—Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 82. Fringilla melanoxantha (Licht.), Wagler, Isis, 1831, 525. ? Fringilla catotol, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 914. Fringilla texensis, Giraud, 16 Sp. Birds Tex. 1841, pl. v. f. 1 (gives white belly).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 169.
Sp. Char. Upper parts continuously and entirely black; the feathers of the rump white subterminally, and showing this through the black; a few of the feathers with greenish-yellow between the white and the black; a few, perhaps, without black tips. The bases of the third to seventh primaries, and the ends of the tertiaries externally white. The tail is black, except the outer three feathers, in which the outer webs and tips only are this color; the rest white. Inside of wing black. Under parts of body pale yellow. Female with the black of the head and body replaced by olive-green. Length, 4.12 inches; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.00.
Hab. Mexican side of the valley of the Rio Grande, southward; Oaxaca, June (Scl. 1858, 302); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 303); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis I, 19); Costa Rica (Cab. J. 1861, 7); Panama (Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 331; winter).
Habits. The Mexican Goldfinch is distributed from the western side of the Rio Grande, through Mexico and Central America, to Panama. Sumichrast mentions it as found throughout the State of Vera Cruz, but most abundant in the temperate region. It breeds in the vicinity of Orizaba. It was taken in Central America, by Mr. Skinner, and has been reported from Costa Rica, and from Panama in the winter. Of its distinctive peculiarities we have no information, but they probably do not differ from those of the other forms of C. psaltria.
Chrysomitris lawrencii, Bonap.
LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH.
Carduelis lawrencii, Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. V, Oct. 1850, 105, pl. v (California). Chrysomitris lawrencii, Bon. Comptes Rendus, Dec. 1853, 913.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 424.—Heerm. X, S, 50 (nest).—Elliot, Illust. Am. B. I, pl. viii.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 171.
Sp. Char. Male. Hood, sides of head anterior to the middle of the eye, chin, and upper part of throat, black. Sides of head, neck, and body, upper part of neck and the back, and upper tail-coverts, ash-color. Rump and lesser wing-coverts yellowish-green. Throat below the black, breast, and outer edges of all the quills (except the first primary, and passing into white behind), bright greenish-yellow. Wings black. Tail-feathers black, with a white square patch on the inner web, near the end; outer edges grayish; quills black. Female similar, with the black of the head replaced by ash. Length, about 4.70; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.30. Young like the female, but wing-bands pale fulvous, instead of yellow.
Hab. Coast of California; Fort Whipple, Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 83).
Habits. This species, now known to be so common throughout the greater portion of California, was first described by Mr. Cassin in 1850. Dr. Heermann afterwards found them very abundant throughout the northern mining regions of California, frequenting the hillsides covered with brush, the seeds and buds of which they eat with great avidity. Later in the season he found them at San Diego, in quest of grass-seeds on the level plains. They were in large flocks, and so closely packed that he shot thirteen at one discharge. Their nests, he states, are built in the fork of a bush or stunted oak, and are composed of fine grasses, lined with hair and feathers. They contain four or five pure white eggs.
Mr. Ridgway only met with this Goldfinch near the foot of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.
Dr. Cooper met with a few of this species at Fort Mohave, on the Colorado, but found them more numerous near the coast as far north as San Francisco, at least, and also in the more northern mining regions. He has seen them about San Francisco in December, and has no doubt that they remain all the winter throughout the lower country. They seem to avoid the mountainous regions, and have not been met with in Oregon.
Their habits and their song are, in general respects, similar to those of the Goldfinch (C. tristis), but their voice is much weaker, and is higher in its pitch. Their nests, Dr. Cooper thinks, are placed, in preference, on the live-oaks; at least, he has never met with them in any other situation. They are built very much in the style of those of the Goldfinch, but are much smaller, the cavity measuring only an inch in depth and one and a half in breadth. The eggs he describes as four or five in number, pure white, and measuring .80 by .46 of an inch. He adds that they sometimes feed on the ground, on grass-seeds, as well as on buds and seeds of various weeds and trees. They were regarded by him as more of a sylvan species than the Goldfinch, and not so fond of willows and other trees growing along streams and in wet places. In the Colorado Valley they feed on the seeds of the artemisia. He did not notice any there after the middle of April. Eggs, in my own cabinet, from Monterey, identified by Dr. Canfield, are of a uniform greenish-white, exactly similar to those of C. psaltria and tristis, and measure only .58 by .45 of an inch, or less in length by .22 than as given by Dr. Cooper.
Three nests of this species obtained at Monterey, Cal., by Dr. Canfield, all exhibit more or less variations as to material and style of make. They are all more or less felted, and beautifully wrought, fully equal in artistic skill to the nests of the Goldfinch. They are about one and a half inches in height and three in diameter, and the cavity is an inch in depth and one and three quarters in diameter. The walls of these nests are soft, warm, and thick, composed of wool, both vegetable and animal, fine stems of grasses, down, feathers, and other materials, all closely matted together, and lined with the long hair of the larger animals. One of these nests is made up entirely of the finer grasses, strongly matted together.
PINE GOLDFINCH.
Fringilla pinus, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 133, pl. xvii, f. 1.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 455; V, 509, pl. clxxx. Fringilla (Carduelis) pinus, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 103. Linaria pinus, Aud. Synopsis, 1839, 115.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 125, pl. clxxx. Chrysomitris pinus, Bonap. Consp. 1850, 515.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 425.—Cooper & Suckley, 197.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 172.—Samuels, 290. ?? Chrysomitris macroptera, Dubus, Esq. Orn. tab. 23 (Mexico).—Bp. Conspectus, 1850, 515.