194 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mrs. Amelia S. Allen writes to me : "The Vigors wren is perhaps, 

 next to the California quail and the spotted towhee, the most abundant 

 resident species in Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley. It comes back 

 again and again to the same nest hole, which it often visits as early as 

 the first week in February. On March 15, 1928, 1 found one taking the 

 fur from a rabbit skin that had been thrown into a tree and carrying it 

 into a hole at the very bottom of a live oak. In 1919 a pair brought up 

 a brood in a big flicker box that stood on a wall near our front door 

 waiting to be placed in its permanent position. In 1936 a pair nested 

 in the same box in a position near a second-story window." 



Dawson (1923) says of the nesting site: "A cranny of suitable size 

 is the sine qua non, and this may be in a rock-pile, in a canyon wall, in 

 an old woodpecker hole, in the mouth of an old tunnel of a Rough- 

 winged Swallow, under a root, behind a sprung bark-scale, in an old 

 shoe or a tin can, or the pocket of a disused coat." Nests have been 

 found also in empty boxes or small baskets left lying around, in wood 

 piles, behind the lattice on a porch, under a tile on the roof of a house, 

 in trash piles, in cavities on cliffs, and behind bunches of sprouts or 

 leaves on the trunk of a tree. 



Dawson (1923) says the nests are made "basally of sticks, twigs, 

 weedstems, grasses, bark, or moss; lining of fine grasses, hair, fur, or 

 feathers." Various other materials enter into the composition of the 

 nests, such as fine rootlets, dry leaves, wool, cotton, spider nests, horse- 

 hair, and sometimes bits of snakeskin ; probably any soft pliable mate- 

 rial will do. 



Eggs. — Mr. Miller (1941) says: "Three females were observed to 

 lay their eggs early in the morning; each female laid at about the 

 same time each day. Two sets of eggs usually are laid, with from 

 three to eight eggs per set; six is the most common number." The 

 eggs are practically indistinguishable from those of the other races 

 of the species, being white, with scattered fine dots of reddish brown 

 or cinnamon, and sometimes a few shell markings of pale drab ; some 

 are nearly immaculate. The measurements of 40 eggs average 16.6 by 

 12.8 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.0 by 

 12.5, 17.0 by 14.0, 15.2 by 12.7, and 15.2 by 12.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Observations made by Mr. Miller (1941) "seem to warrant 

 the conclusion that the female does all the incubation, at least in the 

 early stages. She leaves the nest for short periods to forage and to 

 be fed by the male. The male may also feed her at the nest. * * * 

 The periods of incubation and nestling life are about 14 days each. 

 The parents probably care for the young for about 2 weeks after the 

 latter leave the nest. * * * The total nesting cycle is about 58 

 days in length." 



Food. — Professor Beal (1907) examined the stomachs of 146 speci- 



