rox sparrow: western mountain 1427 



with fine grass tops taken from a species of rye grass. The outside 

 of the nest is four and a half inches across by four inches deep; the 

 inner diameter is two and a half inches, the depth two inches. About 

 one-third of the nests examined by me (some fifty in number), were 

 lined inside with more or less horse-hair, and a couple, in addition, 

 with feathers." 



The nests offulva he found in south-central Oregon Bendire (1889) 

 states "are placed in various situations, Kalmia thickets, service-berry 

 and willow bushes, as well as thick, scrubby evergreens, being pre- 

 ferred. They are always well hidden, and may be found from a few 

 inches to six feet from the ground; none were found by me directly 

 on the ground. Eggs may be looked for about June 12, and as late 

 as July 15. The usual number laid is three or four, and but one brood, 

 I think, is reared in a season." He describes a nest as "composed ex- 

 ternally of coarse plant fibres * * * and a few horse-hairs. It is 

 not as compactly built as nests of Townsend's or Slate-colored Spar- 

 rows. Its exterior is five inches wide by two and one half inches 

 deep; inner diameter, three inches; depth, one and a quarter inches. 

 It was evidently deeper originally, and has been much compressed 

 and flattened in packing." 



Of 14 nests of megarhyncha John W. Maillard (1921) found near 

 Lake Tahoe, California, 6 were on the ground. Three of those above 

 ground were in Ceanothus bushes, either near the edge of a thicket 

 or well within it. One nest was 2 feet up in a crotch formed by a 2- 

 inch branch and a willow. Another was 2 feet off the ground on a 

 mass of dead branches and debris under a willow clump. One was on 

 a dead aspen branch 3 feet above a small stream. He comments that 

 all the nests followed a well-established form of construction, which 

 he describes as follows: 



In all instances the nest proper was composed of combinations of shreds of old 

 bark, small dead twigs, old chips and small chunks of wood and dead leaves. All 

 of this material, more or less decayed and very light in weight, was used in varying 

 proportions in the different nests, sometimes one or two of these constituents 

 being omitted. The wall of one nest contained several chips of wood, the largest 

 of which was five and a half inches long by one and a quarter wide, and very thin, 

 possibly a piece of berry basket. The lining of the nests was of finely shredded 

 bark, dead rootlets, old dry grasses and sometimes horsehair. 



* * * 



Owing to the great shyness of this species but few opportunities for observing 

 the actual nest building presented themselves. In one instance a bird was watched 

 as it dragged a twig, at least eight inches in length, along the ground and up 

 through and over the mass of dead branches and debris upon which, at a height 

 of two feet from the ground, the nest was placed. Previously, the same bird had 

 been seen carrying a small twig to its nest by direct flight. In another instance, 

 where a nest was four feet and a half from the ground in a gooseberry tangle, the 

 bird picked up twigs but a few yards from the nesting site and carried them to it 

 by direct night. These twigs varied greatly in length, the longest being estimated 



