1106 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 2 



in smooth, rounded hollows under clumps of mountain muhley, with 

 no other immediate protection. 



The usual Colorado nest of the gray-headed junco is well described 

 by Aiken and Warren (1914) : "The nest is built on the ground, some- 

 times in a cavity in a roadside bank or a stream bank. One found by 

 Rockwell and Warren in Jefferson County was sunken in the ground 

 so that the rim was flush with the surface. The nest proper w^as 

 made of grass, coarse outside, lined with finer, with a few horsehairs 

 intermingled. This was under a Douglas's fir tree, and nearly covered 

 by a spreading branch which grew out almost at the foot of the tree 

 and actually rested on the ground over the nest. This nest contained 

 four fresh eggs * * *. Taken May 30, 1912." 



In northeastern Utah, Twomey (1942) found: 



The first nests * * * at Green Lake, Uinta Mountains, on June 10 [1937]. 



* * * From June 17 to 20, at Indian Canyon, eighteen nests with fresh eggs 

 were found in the mixed blue spruce, Douglas fir, yellow pine and aspen forest. 

 The nests, averaging four or five eggs, were always on the ground, generally under 

 a protecting shrub or a log. These were the most common nesting birds of this 

 region. 



At Paradise Park, between July 7 and 10, numerous nests were located, all 

 containing eggs advanced in incubation. Birds in juvenal plumage were seen 

 in large numbers at Bald Mountain in the Engelmann spruce-alpine fir forest 

 from July 16 to 20. These juncos were nesting in larger numbers here than at 

 any other place visited in the [Uinta] Basin. 



Florence Merriam Bailey (1904) found several caniceps nests at 

 11,000 feet in north central New ]\/[exico, near the headwaters of the 

 Upper Pecos River, "nests being found everywhere in the open. 



* * * All of the nests were on the ground, completely hidden by 

 tufts of grass or bunches of weeds, being discovered only by flushing 

 the brooding bird." 



Denis Gale (MS.) describes nests he found in the Gold Hill-Ward 

 district of the Eastern Slope of the Colorado Rockies, at 8,000 to 

 10,000 feet : "Nests on the ground. Fond of selecting sheltered places, 

 side of hill or bank, concealed with care and cunning, set well into the 

 ground, with sometimes only the smallest aperture for the entrance 

 and exit of the bird; seldom selecting a bare place, but preferring 

 some shrub, plant, tree or stump or roots of such, under or close to 

 which it excavates sufficiently for its piu"pose. Bird somewhat 

 diflicult to flush. Nest of coarse grasses outside, lined with fine 

 grasses, hair and feathers sometimes. Eggs four and five * * *. 

 One nest measured 4}^ by 3K inches outside — 2% by 1% inches inside." 

 From Gale's data I estimate the earliest date of laying to be May 20, 

 1890 and the latest clutch was started July 8, 1886. 



I found four nests of caniceps in 1958 on a north-facing slope in 

 ponderosa pine at 7,800 feet 18 miles west of Denver, Colo. Nest 1, 



