338 FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



portant ceremonial in the robin, but I am unable to speak with 

 any definiteness upon this point at present. Howe " believes 

 that the female chooses the site, and this view is probably cor- 

 rect. He says that once when attention was called to a female 

 robin in the crotch of a cherry tree, " she flew to the ground 

 and began chasing about a male, evidently her mate. In a 

 minute they both flew to the crotch which she had just left 

 and stood peering about; the male flew to the ground again 

 in a few seconds and the female also flew, returning in a minute 

 with the few first twigs that were to form the foundation of 

 the nest." When the case is not urgent, the choice of site is 

 probably not so promptly made as is here implied. This is cer- 

 tainly true in bluebirds and house wrens where the simple pro- 

 ceedings can be more readily watched. 



The blond ring dove, according to Craig," in deciding upon a 

 nesting site tries a number of promising situations, and "either 

 bird, upon finding a likely spot, gives a nest-call which stimu- 

 lates the mate to fly towards the source of the sound. . . . When 

 at length a site is agreed upon, the selection is impressed upon 

 the minds of the birds by a ceremony in which both sit together 

 in the chosen spot and call and caress one another for a long 

 period . ' ' 



In the records of the building pairs which follow, those of 

 the two last observed will be given first, because in certain 

 respects more complete. 



'Robin's Nest No. i. — This nest, when first noticed on June 14 

 at 2.30 p. M., consisted of a few wisps or weeds and rootlets 

 laid on the horizontal limb of an elm, 10 feet from the ground, 

 and at a point where a secondary branch made a flat crotch. 

 This site had been selected presumably but a short time before; 

 at any rate the work of building had only fairly begun. 



Selection and Treatment of Materials: Molding and Turning — 

 The female came repeatedly with fresh materials in her bill, 

 and executed the following" movements : alighting on the branch 

 about a foot from the actual nest site she would pause a moment 

 as if for assurance, trip up to it, drop her load and immediately 

 set to work. She would first settle low down and press with 



^' Howe, Reginald Heber. Building Habits of the American Robin {Merula 

 migratorin) in Eastern Massachusetts. The Auk, vol. xv, p. 162-167. New York, 

 1898. 



38 Op. cit. p. 93. 



