934 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



"was a poor affair — simply a few dry grasses * * * arranged on one 

 side and part of the bottom of an irregular hole on the edge of a 

 bank along the side of a small gully. The eggs rested upon the earth 

 with a few grasses crost between * * *." The photographs accom- 

 panying the account show several oaks along the draw near the 

 bottom of which the nest site is shown. 



The most detailed account of the nest and associated behavior of 

 this race is that of Chester Barlow (1902) based on his observations 

 of "a colony" near Milpitas, Santa Clara County. He does not 

 mention the locality in his account, but it is on his specimen labels 

 of the same dates in the collections of the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology at Berkeley. He writes: "This particular hill possesses a 

 decidedly scraggly growth of sage, and why it was chosen in preference 

 to some heavily covered hill which might afford secure protection, is 

 best known to the birds themselves. Perhaps the stone wall * * * 

 and the adjacent road afford a generous food supply. It should be 

 mentioned also that a small country schoolhouse Ues just across the 

 road * * *." After a considerable search back and forth over the 

 hill, J. Grinnell found a nest. Chester Barlow (1902) continues: 



The nest was sunk flush m the ground, being built partly under a sage root, 

 and contained four eggs with a very perceptible light bluish tinge. * * * We sat 

 down at a distance but not a sound came from the female, who had flushed and 

 disappeared. After perhaps 10 minutes of quiet watching the bird appeared up 

 the hill but was extremely wary. She flew past the bush and alighted, but would 

 not go to the nest. Then she flew up the hill again, when I collected her. Dis- 

 section showed the set to be complete [and the eggs slightly incubated]. 



The nest mentioned was substantially built * * *. It was composed out- 

 wardly of grass, grass roots, a few small twigs and fibers. The lining was almost 

 entirely of horsehair. The outside diameter was six inches, the inside three 

 inches. Depth inside, IH inches; outside three inches. The front or exposed 

 rim of the nest was much thicker than the back. 



The clumped distribution of breeding pairs Barlow noted was also 

 reported by J. R. Pemberton (1910) who says: "Colonies are the 

 rule, and the writer found usually a dozen pairs in the confines of a 

 two or three acre hillside." It is doubtful that breeding pairs ever 

 attain this density, even in optimum habitat, but no accurate censuses 

 of such areas have been reported for this race. I have often en- 

 countered isolated pairs in the small patches of coastal scrub con- 

 taining sagebrush that border the woodland tongues or occupy small 

 steep slopes away from the trees in the hills from Berkeley to Hayward, 

 east of San Francisco Bay. 



Joseph Grinnell and Margaret W. Wythe (1927) give the nesting 

 season in the San Francisco Bay region as "the last of April to well 

 into July"; their extreme dates for fresh eggs of April 27 and July 8 

 apparently refer to the two nests described above. J. Grinnell and 

 T. I. Storer (1924) obtained a fully fledged juvenile in the Yosemite 



