SIERRA HERMIT THRUSH 135 



birds on the wing throughout the latter part of June and into July. 

 The average seems to be four eggs, but often only three are laid, and 

 I have found several containing five eggs. The nesting sites chosen 

 seem to be almost anywhere. I have found them in aspens, in lodge- 

 pole pine, in willow, and, along Mammoth Creek, in the Artemisia 

 tridentata brush, much to my surprise. My notes show fresh eggs 

 found on May 30 and fresh eggs observed on July 9." 



Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) found several nests in the 

 Lassen Peak region. The site of the first one, found May 28, 1927, 

 "was in deep, dark fir woods with lodgepole pines and aspens close by. 

 The nest was slightly over one and one-half meters above the ground, 

 saddled at the intersection of a dead fir stem four centimeters in diam- 

 eter slanting at a forty-five degree angle against a live young fir stem 

 nine and one-half centimeters in diameter. The slanting stem and 

 emanating dead twigs furnished most of the support." In some other 

 cases, the nests were placed between small trees, usually an incense 

 cedar and a yoimg lodgepole pine, from 80 centimeters to a meter 

 above the ground, supported by branches and twigs of the two little 

 trees. A photograph of a nest in such a situation is shown. 



Dr. Grinnell (1908) found many nests, both old and new, in the San 

 Bernardino Mountains above an altitude of 6,300 feet. "They were 

 all built in small firs or cedars usually growing in the shade of taller 

 trees not far from the streams. The nests varied from eighteen inches 

 to five feet in height above the ground, the average being about three 

 feet." A typical nest "was three feet above the ground near the top 

 of a diminutive fir tree growing a yard from the stream. * * * It 

 was snugly ensconced against the main stem and was supported by 

 horizontal branches. It was a compact structure deeply cup-shaped. 

 The inside diameter was 2.40 and the depth 1.65 inches. Externally 

 it measured 4 X 4.75 inches. It was composed largely of pine needles 

 and weathered grass stems, and the cavity was lined with strips of 

 cedar bark and fine dry rootlets." 



Rollo H. Beck (1900) found an unusually high nest, which he 

 recorded as a nest of Audubon's hermit thrush, but, as it was in the 

 Sierra Nevadas, it undoubtedly belonged to a Sierra hermit thrush. 

 He writes: "We were near the summit of the Sierras on the 6th of 

 June, 1896, and while looking around in a grove of trees, I noticed 

 a nest well out on a pine limb, thirty feet from the ground. On 

 climbing the tree, the bird was seen upon the nest and flew off when 

 closely approached. The nest is strongly built of twigs and bright 

 yellow moss (Evernia vulpina), with a layer of fine dry leaves, within 

 which is a heavy lining of fine grass stems. The nest contained four 

 fresh eggs." 



