1300 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



reported by Louis Bolander (1906) of a nest built 35 feet above the 

 ground in a cypress, another in the outer drooping branches of a 

 tall acacia tree, and a third in an ivy vine on a building (Blanchard, 

 1941). 



The extremes of height of nests reported in the literature range 

 from flush with the ground to 35 feet above it. The average height 

 above the ground for 31 nuttalli nests at Berkeley was 3.5 feet with 

 a range of 1.5 to 11 feet, for 16 nuttalli nests at Point Lobos 1.8 feet 

 with a range of 1 to 4 feet. H. W. Carriger (pers. comm.) states that 

 he occasionally found nuttalli nests on the ground. The Friday 

 Harbor Puget Sound sparrows tended to nest on the ground with 

 greater frequency than did the Berkeley nuttalli. Of the 45 nests I 

 found at Friday Harbor, 14 were built on the ground in masses of 

 dense scrubby salal (Gaultheria shallori) or in dead bracken fern or 

 grass. I also found nests in native and exotic trees and shrubs. As 

 nest-building started at this locality before the trees and shrubs were 

 fully leafed, many of the nests in process of construction could be 

 seen from a distance of several yards. The foliage grew so rapidly, 

 however, that before the eggs were laid the nests were well concealed. 



The eight gambelii nests I found at Mountain Village in 1950 were 

 all built on the ground. When nesting began there, the only vegeta- 

 tion thick enough for concealment was either dead grass recently 

 exposed by the melting snow or dense mats of dwarf perennials. At 

 College, Alaska, in 1957 I found 13 nests on the ground and only one 

 nest in dead twigs a few inches above the sloping ground of a railroad 

 embankment. 



The four oriantha nests I found in the Sierras were all on the ground, 

 one at the center of an Artemesia bush, the others under scrub lodge- 

 pole pine. Records of oriantha nests in the literature include several 

 on the ground in grass, on slanting willow stems or under scrub 

 conifers, and several a few inches above the ground in spruce or pine. 

 The highest on record is a nest Milton S. Ray (1912) found in the 

 Tahoe region 4 feet above the ground in a lodgepole pine sapling. 



In the matter of nest material the birds show great catholicity of 

 taste and use whatever suitable material is available. If the nest is 

 built on the ground, it may lack a platform; if it is placed above the 

 ground it may have a bulky platform of twigs (Bolander, 1906). 

 Materials used in the nest are: fine twigs and rootlets (Barlow, 1901), 

 grasses, both green and dry, dead fern leaves, weed stems, shreds of 

 bark and pine needles (Burleigh, 1930). Materials used for lining 

 include fine grasses, feathers, and whatever mammal hair is available 

 such as deer, cow, horse, and dog (Burleigh, 1930; Grinnell, 1900; 

 Nelson, 1887; Ray, 1912). 



