Powee WESTERN BIRDS 



of these Pewees which I found May 12th in the Arroyo 

 Seco, near Los Angeles. As in other cases I had noticed, 

 the female was doing all the building, the male being 

 nowhere in sight. The nest was on a small alder branch 

 about fifteen feet from the ground. It was placed fiat 

 on the branch but was supported by an upright twig to 

 which it was fastened. The bird was just starting it 

 when I found her and during twenty-seven minutes of 

 watching she made five trips to the nest with material 

 so fine that I could not detect it with naked eye. Be- 

 tween trips she caught insects or rested on a tiny branch 

 below the nesting site. This nesting on an exposed bare 

 branch, or crotch, seems a family trait of the Flycatchers. 

 Certainly it is most convenient for the bird student. 



Four days later the bird was still working at the nest, 

 although it was evidently about finished. It was a 

 beautiful little affair, cup-shaped and trim, just match- 

 ing the gray of the alder branch on which it rested. 



I visited the nest several times after it was completed 

 and the little mother was not, as yet, brooding. Finally, 

 on the 26th, two weeks after I had discovered it, I 

 found that nesting had begun. The bird was very rest- 

 less, taking and leaving the nest fourteen times in the 

 hour I watched her. Once she stayed on the eggs only 

 one and one-half minutes; often it was only three or 

 four minutes, while the longest time of staying was nine. 

 Evidently this brooding was irksome business for so 

 active a bird. She was in the air more than on the nest, 

 frequently staying four minutes away, while once she 

 was gone eleven. 



The male I saw not far away, but he never came to 

 the nest, the female doing all the brooding and looking 

 out for her food supply as well. Though this nest was 

 near a footpath going through this little retreat, I had 

 felt that no harm would come to it, but a Methodist 

 camp-meeting took up their abode nearby and when 

 I went again the nest was gone. 



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