CAPE VERDIN 437 



stems which often have leaves still attached. These inch-long bits are fastened 

 to the cactus with a layer of plant down, the bird standing within the rim and 

 tucking in the material with a most business-like air. The next step carries the 

 outside super-structure backward from the ring to supporting arms of cholla. 

 The frame is of the same material as the original circle. The builders continue 

 to work from the inside and soon the frame becomes a shell. That, in turn, is 

 added to and padded until a thickness of perhaps half an inch is reached. 



The result is a flexible nest. In marked contrast to those of Arizona and 

 particularly the Vizcaino Desert and Sonora it is hardly ever protected on the 

 outside with reinforcement in tjie shape of thorns or larger twigs. * * * 



The opening to the hollow globe is completed last. It is left just large enough 

 to permit the entrance and egress of the parents and it is so placed as to face 

 away from the plant on which the nest is built. It is almost level with the 

 bottom (only once did I observe a hole squarely in tlie center), and it is often 

 somewhat concealed with an overhang of building material. The interior design 

 permits of the low entrance being safely used. The tunnel runs upward. At 

 the interior end the wall of the nest drops abruptly or even outwardly. So the 

 eggs lie directly below the entrance. It is interesting to note that this is not 

 true of the nests of any other race of verdin. 



The nests are lined with feathers and are located in the trees much 

 as are those of the Arizona verdin. In fact, J. Stuart Rowley, who saw 

 many nests in the same general region, tells me that the nesting habits 

 are the same as in Arizona. 



There are five nests of the Cape verdin in the Thayer collection in 

 Cambridge. One of these, taken at Comondu on April 24, was 4 feet 

 up in a mesquite and is quite unique, unlike any verdin's nest I have 

 ever seen. It is made almost wholly of white woolly or cottony sub- 

 stances, reinforced with a few short pieces of fine twigs and weed stems, 

 mixed with a few dry leaves and feathers; there are no long or thorny 

 twigs even on the exterior, and the whole nest is conspicuously white. 



The other four nests, collected at Purissima in May and June, are 

 quite unlike the above and very different from any nests of the Arizona 

 verdin in the almost complete absence of thorny or large twigs. They are 

 all very much alike and are, or rather were, more or less globular struc- 

 tures, made up of great compact masses of short fine twigs, weed and 

 grass stems, flower clusters, fine straws, insect cocoons, and various 

 kinds of plant material ; they contain considerable plant down in the 

 lining, but very little of the white woolly material and only a few feath- 

 ers ; only one contains a few small thorny twigs on the outside. There 

 is nothing in any of these nests that suggests the bristling, thorny for- 

 tresses of the Arizona birds. 



Eggs. — Mr. Rowley tells me that his sets of the Cape verdin consist 

 of three eggs, except for one set of five, taken April 27, 1933, near San 

 Ignacio. Mr. Bancroft (1930) writes: 



667497—46—29 



