COAST BUSHTIt 44l 



the back and sides of the original rim. Material is brought over the top until the 

 original hole has been roofed over and the entrance thus shifted to one side of 

 the top. Rarely one finds a nest with the entrance hole only partly roofed over. 

 As the nest nears completion, a lining of spider web, down, or feathers is 

 made for the passageway and the bowl. The bowl is thickened and filled in, 

 and the walls above the floor of the nest for at least an inch are made quite 

 thick. Material is added to the nest from time to time until the eggs have hatched, 

 probably because the nest, being pendant, needs continual repairing. 



In the second method, mentioned above, "a long extremely loose bag 

 is constructed of strands of material hung from the rim" ; this may be 

 5 to 8 inches long, instead of one an inch deep; otherwise the construc- 

 tion proceeds as above. Of the materials used in nest-building, she says : 

 "Bush-tit nests are built of materials found commonly in the breeding 

 territory. Lichens, mosses, grasses and the staminate flowers of the 

 live oak, Quercus agrifolia, are constituents of almost all nests. These 

 are woven together with hundreds of strands of spider web. Other 

 materials found less commonly are filaree fruits, bark fibers, various 

 plant downs, fir or spruc.e needles, oak leaves, acacia blossoms, blossoms 

 of other plants such as broom and the pappi of composite flowers, 

 feathers, bits of paper and string, and insect cocoons." 



I have a series of six nests before me as I write, no two of which are 

 alike ; they vary greatly in size, shape, and bulk, as well as in the color 

 of the material used. They vary in length from 7 to 10 inches and in 

 the width of the bowl from barely 3 to over 4 inches, though these figures 

 give only a faint idea of the variations in bulk. Nests 12 inches long 

 are fairly common, some are as short as 6 inches, and Dr. B. W. Ever- 

 mann (1881) measured one that was 21 inches in length. He also 

 mentions nests hung in bunches of mistletoe, and says that others have 

 been "found in sage and greasewood bushes, and one in a bunch of 

 cactus." 



The materials in the nests before me are quite varied and produce 

 very diflferent color effects, probably of concealing value. One, collected 

 near Seattle, is constructed largely of very fine twigs and fine rootlets, 

 firmly interwoven into a short bag, 7 inches long; it is decorated with 

 bright green lichens or mosses and lined with soft down feathers or fur ; 

 it was in a "spirea" bush. Another similar nest is 10 inches long, and 

 is interwoven with the twigs of a fir ; it is made almost wholly of bright, 

 yellowish-green mosses. Three California nests are still different; in 

 one the dull dark-brown tone of the lichens and mosses is relieved by 

 only a few bits of gray lichen; another is almost covered with soft, 

 whitish, curly leaves or weed tops and cocoons or nests of spiders or 

 insects, giving it a very pale tone; and in the third nest, the light, red- 

 dish brown blossoms, of which the nest is almost entirely made, produce 



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