WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK 241 



Nests very similar to purple finch nests, but heavier and larger twigs. 

 Nests well out on horizontal limbs." 



One June 12, 1934, Dixon found two nests, one with four eggs and 

 one with five eggs; this is the earliest date for eggs he recorded, and the set 

 of five eggs was the first of this number he had seen. Both nests were 

 in lodgepole pines, one in the top, the other 70 feet up and out at the 

 extreme end of a drooping limb. On June 25, 1935, he found a nest 

 45 feet up in the very top of a lodgepole pine sapling. On July 6, 1935, 

 he recorded a nest "70 feet up in a white pine in open forest," and 

 another in a yellow pine 70 feet up and out on the extreme end of a 

 limb. A nest found on July 13, 1935, was 50 feet up in a dense stand 

 of lodgepole pines, and contained four young, estimated to be about 

 7 days old. 



Dudley S. DeGroot (1935) records three nests in tamaracks and one 

 nest in a red fir in El Dorado County, Calif. The nests in the tama- 

 racks were from 34 to 40 feet above the ground on horizontal limbs; 

 the nest in the red fir was about 40 feet up. He gives a good account 

 of nest building. 



In 1935, Ira La Rivers discovered two nests of the evening grosbeak 

 at Walker Mine, Plumas County, in the Sierra Nevada at an elevation 

 of 6,500 feet. They were in dead white fir trees in a tailing-pond 

 that had been "ravine-flooded" and lacked protective cover. One of 

 the nests was 20 to 25 feet from the ground in the crotch next to the 

 trunk of one of these trees. By climbing an adjacent tree, he saw it 

 contained two eggs. He describes the structure as "compact from the 

 center, ragged on the outside; the bowl not as deep or sohd as a robin's 

 nest, but approximately the size of a robin's nest." The second nest 

 was some distance off, at the edge of the pond "nearer the forest 

 proper." This nest was also in a dead white fir, 20 to 25 feet from 

 the ground and in a crotch next to the trunk. 



He writes me: "Concerning the nest at the pond's edge, I find a 

 notation to the effect that 'but for the activity of two busy, markedly 

 apprehensive birds, the nest would have been perfectly camouflaged 

 by its age, for it shows a decrepitude which only long desertion can 

 explain.' The resemblance to a tree-built Zenaidura macroura nest 

 was quite noticeable, even more so when I found the ground-work of 

 the structure so loose that the greenness of the egg, solitary as far as 

 I could see, shown plainly through." Both pairs of birds manifested 

 alarm at his approach, flew from the nesting tree, returned to perch on 

 the edge of the nest, squawking. He remained only about half an 

 hour in the vicinity as he did not wish to disturb the birds further. 

 There was no protection for the nests from sun or rain, built as they 

 were in dead trees. There are records of two other nestings of the 

 species in dead tree tops. 



