_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.
Chrysomitris pinus, BONAP.