SAN PEDRO WREN-TIT 95 



Storer (1924) write of its haunts in the Yosemite region: "The regu- 

 lar niche of the Pallid Wren-tit is in the foothill chaparral, beneath 

 the crown-foliage of the brush plants and so usually not more than 

 5 feet from the ground. Fully nine-tenths of the bird's existence is 

 passed in this shallow zone. Occasionally wren-tits are to be seen up 

 in oaks or other trees growing amid or close to the brush, while now 

 and then a bird will be noted on the ground, momentarily. But the 

 three essentials for the bird's life, food, shelter from enemies, and safe 

 nesting sites, are afforded in largest measure in the chaparral itself." 



Nesting. — The same writers located a nest of this wren-tit 7 feet 

 above the ground, much higher than is usual, "in the spray of ter- 

 minal foliage of a slanting greasewood stalk." 



Wright M. Pierce (1907) found a nest of the pallid wren-tit in 

 San Antonio Canyon, elevation about 4,500 feet, near Claremont, 

 Calif. He describes it as follows : 



It was situated among thick branches and near the top of a scrub oak bush 

 perhaps two and a half feet up, and is a gem of bird workmanship, composed, 

 as it is, of bleached weed fibres such as fine grasses, an abundance of soft plant 

 down, a little weed bark, and fine hairy threads of bark of the j^cca plant, 

 with a few wider blades of grass intermixed and woven about thru the whole 

 thick-walled structure. A thick mass of horse hair makes the lining. To more 

 firmly bind and hold together the nest, which even without would have been 

 unusually strong and serviceable, these ingenious little birds used cobwebs as 

 an outer covering to make their house doubly strong. The dimensions of the 

 nest are : Depth, outside, 5 inches ; inside, 2 inches. Diameter, outside, 4 inches ; 

 inside, 2 inches. 



This seems to be an unusually large nest in outside dimensions. 



There are two nests in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, taken 

 near Escondido, that were placed about 2 feet up in sagebushes; fine 

 strips of sage bark and some of the sage blossoms were used in the 

 construction, which must have helped to conceal the nests. 



This seems to be the only one of the wren-tits that has been recorded 

 as a victim of the dwarf cowbird ; Dr. Friedmann (1934) reports only 

 three cases of such parasitism. 



The eggs of the pallid wren-tit are similar to those of the other races 

 of the species. The measurements of 40 eggs average 18.0 by 14.1 

 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 19.4 by 14.3, 

 18.3 by 14.7, and 16.8 by 13.4 millimeters. 



CHAMAEA FASCIATA CANICAUDA Grinnell ind Swarth 



SAN PEDRO WREN-TIT 



HABITS 



Tills is the southernmost of the wren-tits, living in northwestern 

 Baja California, from the United States boundary south to about 

 latitude 30. 



