GAMBEL'S WREN-TIT 81 



cinnamon, the upper parts darker and browner (back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts bistre or sepia) ." 



Apparently what has been written about the habits of the neighbor- 

 ing type race would apply equally well, in most respects at least, to the 

 subspecies. I can find nothing in the literature to indicate anything 

 peculiar in its habits. Its rich coloring is probably due to its humid 

 coast habitat. 



There are two sets of eggs with nests of this wren-tit in the Thayer 

 collection in Cambridge. One nest, containing three eggs, was placed 

 against the trunk of a fir tree among some azaleas, at Eureka, Calif. 

 The other nest, taken at Sonoma on May 17, 1895, contained five 

 eggs ; this nest is similar to nests of the coast wren-tit but is somewhat 

 less bulky and made of finer materials, with many spider nests on the 

 exterior, and lined with very fine grass and hair; it measures 2^^ 

 inches in height and 3 inches in diameter, externally ; the inner cavity 

 is 2 inches in diameter and 1% inches in depth. 



The eggs are indistinguishable from those of the other wren-tits. 

 The measurements of 35 eggs average 18.3 by 14.3 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 21.0 by 14.8, 19.9 by 15.0, 

 16.6 by 14.3, and 18.4 by 13.8 millimeters. 



CHAMAEA FASCIATA FASCIATA (Gambel) 

 GAMBEL'S WREN-TIT 

 ^ Plates 19-21 



Contributed by Mary M. Erickson * 

 HABITS 



The wren-tit is a bird that many do not have an opportunity to know, 

 since it represents a monotypic family and its range is restricted to a 

 narrow belt along the Pacific coast from south of the Columbia River 

 down into Baja California. It is principally a bird of the wind-swept 

 brushland of the immediate coast at the northern end of its range, but 

 in California it is found everywhere west of the Sierras in the extensive 

 chaparral belt or in the brushy margins of the forests and streams. 

 Even in the area in which it occurs it is better known by its voice than 

 by its appearance. Casual visitors to the chaparral ask what bird 

 makes the loud-ringing call that may come from the distant ridge or 

 with surprising suddenness from within the nearby bushes. But even 

 if one knows it is nearby it is not easy to see this dweller of the brush- 

 land, for it rarely leaves the endless expanse of twigs within the leafy 

 crown to come into the open at the top or to the ground below. If one 

 has the time and patience to wait nearby, its own curiosity will often 

 bring it within view. With practice one can glimpse them, but it is 

 never easy to see them clearly or follow them for any distance. 



* Derived largely from Erickson, "Territory, Annual Cycle, and Numbers in a Population 

 of Wren-tits," 1938. 



