456 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and on the lower mountain slopes, especially where the large trees were 

 scattered, leaving large, open, sunny areas, overgrown with scrub oaks, 

 small madrones, scattered junipers, and a variety of other shrubbery. 



The lead-colored bushtit is intermediate in its characters between the 

 California bushtit on the west and Lloyd's on the southeast, being a 

 plainly colored bird without the distinctive head markings of either of 

 the other two forms. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of the lead-colored bushtit are similar 

 to those of the species elsewhere, though some different species of trees 

 and shrubs are utilized as nesting sites and the nests are made of such 

 material as is locally available. Of the six nests recorded in our Arizona 

 notes, one was at the end of a pendant limb of a live oak, three were 

 in oak scrub, one was in a small juniper, and one in a madrona bush; 

 the juniper nest was only 6 feet from the ground and the nest in the 

 live oak was 9 feet up, the others being at intermediate heights. They 

 were all at altitudes ranging from 4,000 to 7,000 feet. The madrona 

 nest, now before me, is a beautiful structure ; it was made largely of green 

 mosses, whitish lichens, and buff plant down, mixed with a few small 

 dry leaves, fine plant fibers, etc., all firmly matted together; it was 

 profusely lined with small, gray, downy feathers, and what looks like 

 mouse fur. 



Bendire (1887) says that the nests are not always "strictly pensile, 

 but are woven into and supported by small twigs and branches of the 

 oak bushes {Quercus iindalata?) in whic.h they are built. Several nests 

 were placed in bunches of a species of mistletoe (probably Phoredendron 

 flavescens), and in these cases the nests are supported and placed 

 directly in the forks of this plant. * * * The nests are outwardly com- 

 posed of the dried, curled-up leaves of the white sage, plant-down of 

 a pinkish tint, spider webs, small bits of mosses and lichens, and are 

 thickly lined inside with soft, small feathers. * * * The nests are placed 

 in about equal proportions in low oak bushes, from 5 to 7 feet from the 

 ground, generally well c.oncealed by the foliage, or in bunches of 

 mistletoe in oak or mesquite trees, from 15 to 20 feet high." 



Swarth (1904) says that the earlier nests are all in the lower foothill 

 regions, "but later in the season [in the Huachucas] they nest abundantly 

 in the higher altitudes, sometimes high up in the pine trees. I saw one 

 nest at the very top of a tall pine, but the tree was growing on a steep 

 hill side, and the nest was about on a level with the trail from which 

 I saw it." 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that in the Chisos Mountains, Tex., the 

 nests are made in nut pines, 12 to 15 feet from the ground. And, in 

 New Mexico, nests were built in junipers and cottonwoods; one nest 



