26 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



out bits of moss, which did not seem to suit, for they were dropped again as 

 fast as gathered; but at last, finding some to his fancy, he flew off and I saw him 

 go into a thick fir and disappear. I could as yet see nothing of a nest, but as 

 both birds were flying in with sticks, moss, etc., I was sure one was being built 

 there. Both birds worked hard, were very silent, and did not come very near 

 the ground, getting nearly all of their building material from the tree tops, I think. 

 On the 16th I again visited the place, and with the aid of a field glass dis- 

 covered the nest, which was to all appearances complete, but the birds were not 

 seen. On the 21st I took a boy with me to climb the tree, and found the nest 

 finished, but no eggs. On March 31 we visited it again and found the set com- 

 plete and the female at home. She stayed on the eggs until the climber put his 

 hand out for her, when she darted off with a low cry and was shot by me. 

 The eggs, five in number, were but slightly incubated; the nest was placed about 

 85 feet from the ground and 10 feet from the top of the tree; it was built close 

 to the trunk, and was very well hidden. 



Mr. Anthony generously presented this set of eggs, with the nest, to 

 the United States National Museum. Major Bendire (1895) describes 

 the nest as follows : "This nest, now before me, is compactly built and 

 rather symmetrical, measuring TYz inches in outer diameter by 4^ 

 inches deep; the inner diameter is 3 inches by 2^/2 inches deep. Exter- 

 nally it is composed of fine twigs, dry grass, tree moss, and plant fibers, 

 all well interlaced, and the inner cup is composed exclusively of fine, 

 darklooking tree moss." 



The major goes on to say: 



Mr. C. W. Swallow writes me that he took a set of four eggs of this species 

 in Clatsop County, Oregon, on May 8. Thfs nest was placed in a small hemlock, 

 about 10 feet from the ground. I believe as a rule they nest in high, bushy firs. I 

 saw a pair of these birds evidently feeding young, in a very large fir tree, near 

 the summit of the Cascade Mountains, on June 9, 1883, while en route from 

 Linkville to Jacksonville, Oregon, but could not see the nest, which must have 

 been fully 60 feet from the ground. But one brood is reared in a season. 



S. F. Rathbun (1911) writes: 



On April 18, 1909, the writer while looking through a dense strip of second 

 growth of yoimg red firs (Pseudotsuga mucronata) in a heavy wooded tract a 

 few miles east of the city Seattle, found a nest of this species. The young fir in 

 which it was built was alongside an old and seldom used path through the second 

 growth, on the edge of a small open space about ten feet in diameter, having 

 a further undergrowth of salal (Gatdiheria shallon) and red huckleberry (Vaccin- 

 ium parvifolium) shrubs. The tree was five inches in diameter tapering to a 

 height of thirty-five feet, and the nest was placed close against its trunk on 

 four small branches, at a height of twelve feet. It was outwardly constructed 

 of dead dry twigs, next a thick felting of green moss into which was interwoven 

 some white cotton string, and was lined with dry moss, a little dead grass and a 

 few feathers, among the latter some of the Steller's Jay, and is a handsome 

 compact afiFair. Dimensions : average outside diameter 6^ inches, inside diameter 

 3>2 inches; depth outside, 5 inches; inside 2 inches. 



There is a nest of the Oregon jay, with a set of four eggs, in the 



