COAST BUSHTIT 443 



encountered by a pair of bushtits in their attempts to build a nest in a 

 eucalyptus tree : "I could see the birds alight time after time in a cluster 

 of limbs, about 12 feet from the ground, and often see bits of material 

 fall to the ground. The bewildered birds would hop all about the spot, 

 trying to find the stuff they had brought. But the eucalyptus limbs and 

 leaves were so smooth that nothing would stick to them. All this day 

 and the next they worked without making even the beginning of a nest. 

 Twice they changed the nesting site without efifect. Their ancestral 

 experience had been with native plants, thick-leaved, usually prickly 

 or rough. Finally, on March ninth, their persistence and patienc.e were 

 rewarded. They got a little circle of moss and fibres caught on the limbs 

 and soon completed the nest." 



S. F. Rathbun writes to me: "The bushtit [in western Washington] 

 seems to favor localities that are more or less open, where the sunlight 

 breaks among a growth that overruns old logged-ofif sections; this 

 growth is in the nature of the hazel, small alders, young dogwoods, and 

 more particularly the beautiful ocean-spray, or 'spirea' (Holodiscus 

 discolor). The little glades that will be found among such spots are 

 especially liked by this bird, and the partiality shown by it for such 

 as have a growth of H. discolor is very marked. In fact, it may be said 

 that, wherever this occurs to any extent, one can expect to find the 

 bushtit, and usually does. The ocean-spray is the hallmark of the 

 bushtit. 



"I have found the nests in many locations, but the birds have a fond- 

 ness for building in the 'spirea' ; and I think the reason for this is that, 

 as the bush always has numbers of the dry flower clusters of the pre- 

 ceding year in evidence, the nest is better protected from view, as in 

 a way it resembles a panicle of the dry blooms. I have several times 

 found a nest attacjied to one of these dry flower clusters, becoming a 

 part of it, as it were, and in this way the concealment became more 

 effective." (See pi. 67.) 



Eggs. — The commonest numbers of eggs in the nests of the bushtit 

 run from 5 to 7, seldom fewer or more, but as many as 12, 13, and even 

 1 5 have been found ; probably these large numbers are the products of 

 two females, as 3 birds have been seen visiting a nest. W. C. Hanna 

 has a set in his collection containing an egg of the dwarf cowbird ; it 

 would be interesting to know how it was deposited. The eggs are 

 mostly ovate in shape and have little or no gloss. They are pure white 

 and unmarked. The measurements of 50 eggs average 13.7 by 10.1 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 14.7 by 10.2, 

 13.8 by 11.2, and 12.2 by 9.1 millimeters. 



Young. — Authorities seem to agree that the incubation period for the 



