Part 10

Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. _Nest_: a bulky affair of twigs and grasses, lined with feathers and placed in trees and bushes. _Eggs_: 4-6, pale blue, dotted and speckled with reddish brown or umber. Av. size, .65 × .50 (16.5 × 12.7).

General Range.—Northern portions of northern hemisphere, south irregularly in winter, in North America to the Middle States, and southern Oregon.

Range in Washington.—Winter resident, abundant on East-side, infrequent or casual west of the Cascades.

Migrations.—Nov. 1-Dec. 15. Feb. 15-March 15. Yakima Co. Oct. 31, 1899. Chelan March 19, 1896.

Authorities.—_Ægiothus linaria_ Cab. Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. Vol. XII. pt. ii, 1860, 198. C&S. D¹. Ra. D². Kk. J. B.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. C. P.

Those who count themselves familiar with the Goldfinch are apt to let the first few flocks of Redpolls pass unquestioned. When, however, in late November, a norther brings down some thousands of these Alaskan waifs, the bird student is roused to attention. The resemblance between the two species is most striking in form and appearance as well as in habit and note. But once the eyes have been assured by a near revelation of convincing red, that _Acanthis linaria_ is before them, the ears remark also a slight foreign accent in the _sweetie_ call and in the rattling flight notes.

Redpolls summer abundantly along the coasts of Alaska, and along the higher levels down thru British Columbia. The winter movements of this species are irregular and somewhat confusing. According to Nelson, the western residents retire into the interior of Alaska to winter, where they are able to withstand the fiercest cold. The interior birds retire largely to the south, and under the urgency of bad weather sweep into or thru eastern Washington in immense numbers. There is also a small movement setting in a southwesterly direction, so that some birds winter regularly on Vancouver Island, and a few straggle thru the Puget Sound country.

While with us, the Redpoll is nowise dependent upon the forests, but appears to seek the more open country by preference. It subsists chiefly upon seeds, gleaning them from the ground with much pleasant chatter, or seeking them in their winter receptacles. Redpoll again proves kinship with Goldfinch by eating thistle seeds, and with Siskin by his extravagant fondness for the alder catkin. Redpoll’s manner is very confiding; and we are sure that he would not begrudge us a share of his winter viands, if we cared for them. The author is no vegetarian, but he is bound to admit that a “simple diet of grains, fruits and nuts” makes for contentment among the birds, even at forty below zero.

As spring comes on, and the gentle hyperboreans prepare to return to their native heather, we see the deep-dyed crimson of full regalia on crown and breast. But during the actual breeding season, we are told by a competent observer in Greenland, Holboell, the male not only becomes exceedingly shy but loses his rosy coloring. It is hardly to be supposed that this loss of color is a protective measure, but rather that it is the result of the exhaustive labors incident to the season. Nature, in that forbidding clime, cannot afford to dress a busy workman in fine clothes. It is noteworthy in this connection, also, that caged Redpolls lose their rosy tints never to regain them.

No. 30. PINE SISKIN

A. O. U. No. 533. Spinus pinus (Wils.).

Synonyms.—American Siskin. Pine Finch. Pine Linnet.

Description.—_Adult male and female_: Above brownish buffy; below creamy-buff and whitish; everywhere streaked with dusky or dark olive-brown; the streakings are finer on the head and foreparts, coarser on back and breast; wings fuscous, the flight feathers sulphur-yellow at the base, and the primaries edged with the same color; tail fuscous, all but the middle feathers sulphur-yellow at base. Bill comparatively slender, acute. Length 4.75-5.00 (120.6-127); wing 2.75 (69.9); tail 1.80 (45.7); bill .43 (10.9).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; conspicuous general streakiness, sulphur-yellow markings of wings and tail, most noticeable in flight.

Nesting.—_Nest_: saddled upon horizontal limb of evergreen tree, well concealed from below, usually at moderate heights; very variable in structure, flimsy to massive and ornate; composed of small twigs (usually fir), and tree-moss, with a lining of fine rootlets and horse- or cow-hair, rarely feathers. An average nest measures externally 4½ inches wide by 2¼ in. deep; internally 2 in. wide by 1 in. deep. _Eggs_: 1-4, usually 3 or 4, pale bluish green lightly dotted with rufous and blackish, chiefly about larger end. Av. size .67 × .48 (17 × 12.2). _Season_: March-September, but most abundant in April; one brood.

General Range.—North America at large, breeding in higher latitudes, and in coniferous forests of the West to southern boundary of United States; also sparingly in northeastern United States; irregularly south in winter to Gulf of Mexico.

Range in Washington.—In summer coextensive with evergreen timber, but especially common in mountains just below limit of trees; in winter more localized, or irregularly absent.

Authorities.—_Chrysomitris pinus_ Bonap. Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. pt. II. 1858, p. 425. T. C&S. L². Rh. D¹. D². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. E. P.

In designing the Siskin, Nature achieved another triumph in obscurities. The heavy streaky pattern, worked out in dusky olive on a buffy brown base, prepares the bird for self-effacement in any environment; while the sulphur-colored water-mark of the outspread wings barely redeems its owner from sheer oblivion. This remark applies, however, only to plumage. In behavior the Siskin is anything but a forgettable bird-person.

Whatever be the time of year, Siskins roam about in happy, rollicking bands, comprising from a score to several hundred individuals. They move with energy in the communal flight, while their incessant change of relative positions in flock suggests those intramolecular vibrations of matter, which the “new physicists” are telling us about. When a bird is sighted alone, one sees that it is the graceful, undulatory, or “looping,” flight of cousin Goldfinch which the social Siskin indulges so recklessly.

Many of the notes, too, remind us of the Goldfinch. There are first those little chattering notes indulged a-wing and a-perch, when the birds are not too busy feeding. The _koodayi_ of inquiry or greeting is the same. But there is another note quite distinctive. It is a labored, but singularly penetrating production with a peculiar vowel sound (like a German umlauted u), _züm_ or _zzeem_. So much effort does the utterance of this note cost the bird, that it always occasions a display of the hidden sulphur markings of wings and tail.

When fired by passion the Siskin is capable, also, of extended song. This daytime serenade is vivacious, but not loud except in occasional passages,—a sort of chattering, ecstatic warble of diverse elements. The bird has, besides its own peculiar notes, many finch-like phrases and interpolations, reminding one now of the Goldfinch, and now of the California Purple Finch. The most striking phrase produced in this connection is a triple shriek of the Evening Grosbeak, subdued of course, but very effective.

Tho perhaps not numerically equal to the Western Golden-crowned Kinglet, nor to the Western Winter Wren, there is not another bird in Washington which enjoys a more nearly uniform distribution than the Pine Siskin. Its breeding range coincides with the distribution of evergreen timber; its feeding forays include all alder trees; and roving bands are likely to turn up anywhere in eastern Washington, if there is shrubbery larger or greener than sage-brush at hand.

Much of Siskin’s food is obtained upon the ground. City lawns are favorite places of resort; these birds, together with California Purple Finches, appearing to derive more benefit from grass plots, whether as granaries or insectaria, than does any other species. They share also with Crossbills a strong interest in the products of fir trees, whether in cone or leaf. Their peculiar province, however, is the alder catkin, and the tiny white seeds obtained from this source are the staple supply of winter. Mr. Brown, of Glacier, has examined specimens in which the crops were distended by these seeds exclusively. While the observer is ogling, it may be an over-modest Townsend Sparrow, a flock of Pine Siskins will charge incontinently into the alders above his very head. With many _zews_ and _zeems_ they fall to work upon the stubborn catkins, poking, twisting, prying, standing on their heads if need be, to dig out the dainty dole. Now and then, without any apparent reason, one detachment will suddenly desert its claim and settle upon another, precisely similar, a few feet away; while its place will be taken, as likely as not, by a new band, charging the tree like a volley of spent shot.

Nesting time with the Siskin extends from March to September, and the parental instinct appears in the light of an individual seizure, or decimating epidemic, rather than as an orderly taking up of life’s duties. Smitten couples drop out from time to time from the communal groups, and set up temporary establishments of their own; but there is never any let-up in the social whirl on the part of those who are left; and a roistering company of care-free maids and bachelors _en fete_ may storm the very tree in which the first lullabies are being crooned by a hapless sister. Once in a while congenial groups agree to retire together, and a single tree or a clump of neighbors may boast a half-a-dozen nests; tho which is which and what is whose one cannot always tell, for the same intimacy which suggested simultaneous marriage, allows an almost unseemly interest in the private affairs of a neighbor.

Once embarked upon the sea of matrimony, the female is a very determined sitter, and the male is not inattentive. In examining the nest of a sitting bird one may expect the mother to cover her eggs at a foot’s remove, without so much as by-your-leave.

The nest, in our experience, is invariably built in an evergreen tree, usually a Douglas spruce (_Pseudotsuga mucronata_), and is commonly saddled upon a horizontal or slightly ascending limb at some distance from the tree trunk. Viewed from below, it appears merely as an accumulation of material at the base of divergent twigs, where moss and waste is wont to gather. As to distance from the ground, it may vary from four to a hundred feet. The latter is the limit of investigation, but there is no particular reason to suppose they do not go higher. Most of the nests are placed at from eight to twenty feet up.

The materials used in construction are dead fir-twigs, weed-stalks, strips of cedar-bark, mosses of several sorts, grass, fir, hair, plant downs, etc. The interior may be carefully lined with fine rootlets, fur, horse-hair, feathers, altho there is great variation both in material and workmanship. Some nests appear little better than those of Chipping Sparrows; while the best cannot certainly be distinguished (without the eggs) from the elegant creations of the Audubon Warbler. One nest found near Tacoma in April, 1906, was allowed to pass for two weeks as that of a Western Golden-crowned Kinglet; it was built in characteristic Kinglet fashion, chiefly of moss, and was lashed midway of drooping twigs four inches to one side and below the main stem of the sustaining branch, near its end.

The eggs are three or four in number, tho sets of one and two are not rare in some seasons. They are a very pale bluish green in color, with dots, blotches, streaks, and occasional marbling, of rufous and brown, chiefly about the larger end. They vary considerably in size and shape, running from subspherical to a slender ovate. Measurements of average eggs are .68 × .48 inches.

Incubation lasts about twelve days, and the young-are ready to fly in as many more. The brood does not remain long in a family group but joins the roving clan as soon as possible. We suspect, therefore, that the Siskin raises but one brood in a season; and she undoubtedly heaves a sigh of relief when she may again don her evening gown, and rejoin “society.”

No. 31. WESTERN GOLDFINCH.

A. O. U. No. 529a. Astragalinus tristis pallidus (Mearns).

Synonyms.—Pale Goldfinch. “Wild Canary.” “Summer Yellow-bird.” Thistle-bird.

Description.—_Adult male in summer_: General plumage clear lemon or canary yellow; crown patch, including forehead and lores, black; wings black, varied by white of middle and lesser coverts, tips of greater coverts and edges of secondaries; tail black, each feather with white spot on inner web; tail coverts broadly tipped with white; bill-orange, tipped with black; feet and legs light brown; irides brown. _Adult female in summer_: Above grayish brown or olivaceous; wings and tail dusky rather than black, with white markings rather broader than in male; below whitish with buffy or yellow suffusion brightest on throat and sides. _Adult male in winter_: Like adult female but brighter by virtue of contrasting black of wing and tail; white markings more extended than in summer. _Female in winter_: not so yellow as in summer, grayer and browner with more extensive white. _Young_: Like winter adults but browner, no clear white anywhere, cinnamomeus instead. Length of adult male: (skins) 4.71 (120); wing 2.95 (75); tail 1.97 (50); bill .41 (10.4); tarsus .55 (14.1).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black and yellow contrasting, with conical bill, distinctive; undulating flight; canary-like notes. Feeds on thistle seed as does also _Spinus pinus_, a closely related but much less handsome species.

Nesting.—_Nest_: A beautiful compact structure of vegetable fibers, “hemp,” grasses, etc., lined with vegetable cotton or thistle-down, and placed at varying heights in trees or bushes, usually in upright crotches. _Eggs_: 3-6, pale bluish white, unspotted. Av. size, .65 × .52 (16.5 × 13.2). _Season_: July and August; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States, except the Pacific coast district, north to British Columbia and Manitoba, south to northern and eastern Mexico.

Range in Washington.—East-side, not common resident in half-open situations and along streams; resident but roving in winter.

Authorities.—_Chrysomitris tristis_, Brewster, B. N. O. C. VII. Oct. 1882, p. 227. (T). D¹. D². Ss¹. Ss². J.

Specimens.—P. Prov. C.

“Handsome is that handsome does,” we are told, but the Goldfinch fulfils both conditions in the proper sense, and does not require the doubtful apology of the proverb, which was evidently devised for plain folk. One is at a loss to decide whether Nature awarded the Goldfinch his suit of fine clothes in recognition of his dauntless cheer or whether he is only happy because of his panoply of jet and gold. At any rate he is the bird of sunshine the year around, happy, careless, free. Rollicking companies of them rove the country-side, now searching the heads of the last year’s mullein stalks and enlivening their quest with much pleasant chatter, now scattering in obedience to some whimsical command and sowing the air with their laughter. _Perchic’-opee_ or _perchic’-ichic’-opee_, says every bird as it glides down each successive billow of its undulating flight. So enamored are the Goldfinches of their gypsy life that it is only when the summer begins to wane that they are willing to make particular choice of mates and nesting spots. As late as the middle of July one may see roving bands of forty or fifty individuals, but by the first of August they are usually settled to the task of rearing young. The nesting also appears to be dependent in some measure upon the thistle crop. When the weeds are common and the season forward, nesting may commence in June; but so long as thistle down is scarce or wanting, the birds seem loath to begin.

Nests are placed in the upright forks of various kinds of saplings, or even of growing plants, in which latter case the thistle, again, proves first choice. The materials used are the choicest obtainable. Normally the inner bark of hemp is employed for warp, and thistle-down for woof and lining, so that the whole structure bleaches to a characteristic silver-gray. In the absence or scarcity of these, grasses, weeds, bits of leaves, etc., are bound together with cobwebs, and the whole felted with other soft plant-downs, or even horse-hair. The whole is made fast thruout its depth to the supporting branches, and forms one of the most durable of summer’s trophies.

From four to six, but commonly five, eggs are laid, and these of a delicate greenish blue. Fourteen days are required for hatching; and from the time of leaving the nest the youngsters drone _babee! babee!_ with weary iteration, all thru the stifling summer day.

During the nesting season the birds subsist largely upon insects of various kinds, especially plant-lice, flies, and the smaller grasshoppers; but at other times they feed almost exclusively upon seeds. They are very fond of sunflower seeds, returning to a favorite head day after day until the crop is harvested. Seeds of the lettuce, turnips, and other garden plants are levied upon freely where occasion offers; but thistle seed is a staple article, and that is varied by a hundred seeds besides, which none could grudge them.

Thruout the winter the Western Goldfinches are much less in evidence, the majority of them having retired to the southland at that season. Those which remain are somewhat altered to appearance: the wings and tail show much pure white, and the yellow proper is now confined to the throat and the sides of the head and neck. He is thus a lighter and a brighter bird than his eastern brother. But the western bird has the same merry notes and sprightly ways which have made the name of Goldfinch synonymous with sunshine.

No. 32. WILLOW GOLDFINCH.

A. O. U. No. 529b. Astragalinus tristis salicamans (Grinnell).

Synonyms.—California Goldfinch. “Yellow-bird,” etc.

Description.—Similar to _A. t. pallidus_, but wings and tail shorter and coloration very much darker; adult male in summer plumage has tinge of pale olive-green on back, while winter adults and young are decidedly darker and browner than corresponding plumage of _A. t. pallidus_. Wing (of adult male) 2.75 (70); tail 1.73 (44).

Recognition Marks.—As in preceding but decidedly darker and browner, especially in winter.

Nesting.—As in _A. t. pallidus_.

General Range.—Pacific coast district from Lower California (Cerros Id.) north to British Columbia. Has been taken at Okanagan Landing, B. C. (Brooks).

Range in Washington.—Not common resident on West-side only, chiefly in cultivated valleys.

Authorities.—_Chrysomitris tristis_ Bon., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 421, 422, part. C&S. L². Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. E.

Goldfinches are a bit of a rarity on Puget Sound. Of course we see them every season, and one may see a great deal of a particular troop, once its general range is ascertained; but, taken all in all, the bird is not common. Neither Cooper nor Suckley saw this Goldfinch, altho particularly wondering at its absence. The clearing of the forests and the cultivation of the soil is conducive to its increase, however; and there is every reason to believe that we are seeing more of it year by year.

There has been a warm discussion as to the subspecific validity of the Willow Goldfinch, but those who see birds of this form in late winter or early spring cannot but be impressed with the striking brownness of its plumage, as well as by the more extensive white upon the wings, as compared with the eastern bird. Beyond its partiality for willow trees, it has no further distinguishing traits, unless, perhaps, it may be reckoned less tuneful, or noisy.

No. 33. CASSIN’S PURPLE FINCH.

A. O. U. No. 518. Carpodacus cassinii Baird.

Synonym.—Cassin’s Finch.

Description.—_Adult male_: Crown dull crimson; back and scapulars vinaceous mixed with brownish and sharply streaked with dusky; wings and tail dusky with more or less edging of vinaceous; remaining plumage chiefly dull rosy, passing into white on belly and crissum; under tail-coverts white streaked with dusky. _Adult female_: Everywhere (save on wings, tail and lower abdomen) sharply streaked with dusky, clearly, on a white ground, below; above on an olive-gray or olive-buffy ground. _Immature male_: Like female in plumage and indistinguishable. Length of adult 6.50-7.00 (165.1-177.8); wing 3.62 (92); tail 2.56 (65); bill .50 (12.6); tarsus .73 (18.5).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size: red of crown _contrasting_ with back distinctive as compared with _C. p. californicus_; general streakiness of female (and male in more common plumage).

Nesting.—_Nest_: of twigs and rootlets lined with horse-hair, string, etc., placed in pine or fir tree well out from trunk. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, colored as in succeeding species; a little larger. Av. size .85 × .60 (21.6 × 15.2). _Season_: June; one or two broods according to altitude.

General Range.—Western United States from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains west to (but not including?) the Pacific coast district; north to British Columbia; south over plateau region of Mexico; found chiefly in the mountains.

Range in Washington.—At least coextensive with pine timber in eastern Washington; found to summit of Cascades but westerly range imperfectly made out.

Authorities.—[“Cassin’s Purple Finch,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 22.] _Carpodacus cassini_, Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. 1897, p. 177. D¹. J.

Specimens.—Prov. C.

Cassin’s Finch is the bird of the eastern Cascades and the timbered foothills of northern Washington. While ranging higher than other finches, it shares with them an inclination to urban life, and a full realization of the advantages of gardens and cultivated patches. At Stehekin I saw a flock of them gleaning crumbs as complacently as sparrows, in the yard at the rear of the hotel. At Chelan they haunt the lonesome pine trees which still dot the shores of the lake, seemingly regarding their gnarled recesses as citadels where alone they may be safe from the terrors of the open country.

As the bird-man lay sprawling in the grateful shadow of one of these grim sentinels, munching a noonday lunch, and remonstrating with Providence at the unguarded virtues of the all-crawling ant, he spied a last year’s Oriole’s nest hanging just over his head, while an accommodating Cassin Finch called his attention to _this_ year’s nest in process of construction, by going over and helping herself to a beakful of material, which she pulled out of the structure by main force. She evened things up, however, (for the bird-man) by immediately visiting her own nest, pitched on the upper side of a horizontal branch near the end.