LEAD-COLORED BUSHTIT 457 



that she saw was made mostly of sheep wool with small woolly leaves 

 and oak tassels interwoven. Mrs. Wheelock (1904) reports blackberry 

 vines as favorite nesting sites in eastern California. 



Eggs. — The lead-colored bushtit usually lays five or six eggs, which 

 are just like other bushtits' eggs, ovate in shape and pure white in color. 



The measurements of 48 eggs average 13.4 by 10.2 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 14.5 by 10.2, 14.2 by 10.7, 

 12.5 by 10.2, and 13.0 by 9.9 millimeters. 



Young. — Two broods are often, perhaps usually, raised in a season 

 and often at very short intervals, A. J. van Rossem (1936) flushed 

 from a nest what he estimated was a brood of seven or eight young just 

 before dusk. The next morning, four young, just able to fly, left the 

 nest as he approached; and, much to his surprise, he found in the nest 

 five perfectly fresh eggs. The birds that flew from the nest the previous 

 evening may have been adult birds that had gone into the nest to roost, 

 but the interesting point is that the eggs were laid before the young 

 left the nest; thus the first brood had helped to start incubation on the 

 sec.ond brood! 



Plumages. — The sequence of plumages and molts in the lead-colored 

 bushtit is the same as in the other races of the species, but the juvenal 

 plumage exhibits some very interesting variations. Mr. Swarth (1914) 

 writes of this plumage: 



Practically like adult. The gray of the upper parts is duller, less of a blue-gray, 

 the brown cheeks are not so sharply contrasted against the rest of the head, and 

 there is a faintly indicated black line over the auriculars and on the nape. Un- 

 like the adults, the young of plumbeus exhibit considerable diversity in markings, 

 and while the above described specimen represents the plumage perhaps most 

 frequently encountered, there is a large proportion of birds with more or less ex- 

 tensive black markings on the head. In a few specimens there is no trace of head 

 markings, a number have them faintly indicated, as in the specimen described 

 above, and in others the patterns vary from a narrow line extending backward 

 from the eye, to nearly as extensive a black marking as in the adult male of 

 P. m. lloydi (See Swarth, 1913, pp. 399-401). 



It was these black markings on the heads of young plumbeus that 

 led to the erroneous extension of the range of lloydi into southertj 

 Arizona and New Mexico. 



The postjuvenal molt of plumbeus begins during the last week of 

 July, or earlier. I have seen molting adults from August 8 to Sep- 

 tember 13. 



I can find nothing reported on the food, behavior, or voice of this 

 bushtit that dififers in any respect from what has been written about the 

 California races, but shall quote the following passage from the facile 



