246 Habits of Palmer s Thrasher. [zoe 



course, many exceptional nests. Some remarkable for the oddity 

 of their construction, others for their bulkiness and still others for 

 the flimsy manner in which they are put together. Have many 

 records of such; a few instances, however, will suffice to show the 

 peculiar ideas of the birds when they depart from their usual seven 

 by ten building. One nest was built on the ruins of three others 

 and probably represented as many successive broods, and gave the 

 interior of the cholla the appearance of having been solidly filled 

 in with dead sticks. Exterior diameter of the nest 20 inches, depth 

 36 inches, cavity across the top 4}^ inches, bottom 3 inches, depth 

 6 inches, but lined only about 4 inches up with baling rope, hog 

 bristles and grass. A second had an external diameter of 14 inches, 

 depth 12 inches, interior diameter top of cavity 5 inches, bottom 2 

 inches and depth 9 inches, but lined with grass and feathers for two 

 inches only, the other seven inches being naked sticks. The pecu- 

 liarity of another was that the bird in leaving the nest went through 

 a well built piece of cribbing rather more than ten inches deep, which 

 stood at an angle of about 70 degrees with the top of the nest. The 

 sticks forming the cribbing were from six to eight inches long and 

 straight, the aperture was about four and one-half inches in the 

 clear, being rather longer one way than the other. One edge ot 

 the cribbing lay solidly on the nest, the opposite side being open 

 sufficiently to admit the body of the bird, giving the cribbing the 

 appearance of having at some time been tipped from the perpen- 

 dicular. I broke sufficient of the cactus burs away to expose the 

 open side of the nest, then secreted myself to watch events. Both 

 birds soon returned to the nest, but becoming alarmed again leit 

 apparently for good, but in the course of half an hour one again came 

 back and was presently followed by the other. After a general in- 

 spection of the premises the female went on the nest, going in under 

 the open edge of the cribbing, but on being approached left the 

 nest by going up through the cribbing as she did when first dis- 

 turbed. For a third time I saw her make her entrance and exit as 

 described. The nest contained three slightly incubated eggs. In 

 the spring of 1889 I noted several nests made almost entirely of 

 flowering weeds. This came from the nature of the vegetation in 

 the immediate vicinity of the cholla belt in which the nests were 

 placed. 



There appears to be no fixed time for the opening of the nesting 



