296 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paht i 



nlar locality the linings usually consisted of the soft, woolly branch- 

 tips of an everlasting plant, Stylocline gnaphalioides. In outside 

 dimensions the nest is about 5 inches in diameter by 3 inches in depth; 

 inside, the diameter is about 2%, inches, the depth perhaps 2 iuches. 

 When new, the nest is neat and attractive in appearance, but it soon 

 becomes fouled around the edges after the hatching of the brood. 

 Other nesting materials mentioned by Mrs. FloreTice Merriam Bailey 

 (1928) as used in New Mexico are grass stems, plant fibers, leaves, 

 rootlets, twigs, hairs, string, and wool. Ray (1904) describes a nest 

 discovered in the Farallone Islands as "closely made of island grass, 

 with an occasional feather intermixed, and lined with bits of string, 

 cotton and mule hair." In the Point Lobos Reserve, on the coast of 

 central California, where the trees are hung v/ith lichens, this material 

 was used in the construction of nests mentioned by Grinnell and Lins- 

 dale (1936), who state that these nests are unusually well concealed 

 when built into masses of the same vegetation. As proof of the ability 

 of the house finch to resort to "new and ingenious expedients," H. W. 

 Henshaw (1894) tells of a nest built "in the corner of the piazza of a 

 country store" in San Diego County: 



Viewed from below, the nest was seen to be balanced rather than firmly placed 

 upon a narrow joist, and I was at a loss to comprehend how it was maintained there 

 even in calm weather, to say nothing of the high winds that prevail in this locality. 

 By means of a step-ladder I was soon able to solve the problem. Having about 

 one-half finished the structure, the birds evidently recognized the insecurity of its 

 position, and the location being in every other respect eligible they hit upon the 

 following remedy. Procuring a long piece of white string they carried one end well 

 into the body of the nest and twined it around several sticks. Thence it was car- 

 ried out like a guy rope to a nail that chanced to have been only half driven home, 

 about six inches beyond the outer rim. Two turns were taken about the nail and 

 the string then passed back to the nest and firmly interlaced with the twigs. The 

 nest was then completed. 



The string thus attached protected the nest from pitching forward — though the 

 wind rocked it continually — while the wall protected it behind. 



The work was not so deftly done as not to betray the novice in the weaving art, 

 and a yearling Oriole might have smiled at the crude effort to steal its trade by its 

 thick-billed relative. However, the evident purpose of Carpodacus was to tie down 

 its nest so that it would stay, and appearances were but a secondary consideration. 

 That the nest was securely anchored was evidenced by the fact that it contained 

 five eggs upon which the female was peacefully setting quite regardless of the fact 

 that it was within three feet of the head of every passer by. 



The observation in the preceding sentence regarding the nesting 

 bird's obliviousness to the near approach of persons is confirmed by 

 Dr. Bergtold's (1913) statement: "The birds grow very tame if the 

 nest be closely associated with man and his doings: they seem to be 

 bothered in no way by slamming of doors or by passers in and out of a 

 door close to a nest." Nevertheless it must be placed on record that 

 those that have nested for years about the present writer's home in 



