GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 1107 



found May 25, contained four eggs and was in a slight hollow under 

 a small, fallen, dead tree branch, overgrown A\ith kinnikinnie-k 

 {Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). When visited June 27, the nest had been 

 torn apart and the 3-oung apparently taken by a predator; an adult 

 was singing in a nearby tree. 



The other thi-ee nests were in a somewhat more open area, 200 to 

 350 yards west from nest 1, and were in concurrent use in July, 

 presumably for second, or possibly third, broods. Nest 2 had four 

 eggs when found July 12, and three young July 19; one egg did not 

 hatch. Built under a small common juniper {Juni'perus communis 

 var. montana) on level ground instead of in the more usual hollow, 

 it was a large and bulky structm'e of grasses A\dth a few pine needles 

 and strips of inner bark. It measured: inside, 1% inches deep hy 2}i 

 inches in diameter; outside, 3 inches deep by 4j4 to 7 inches in diameter. 

 Nest 3 was found July 19, hidden by grass and concealed beneath a 

 Canada buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), 50 yards down-slope 

 from nest 2. It contained young both when found and 7 days later. 

 This nest, too, was bulky, but had less than half the bidk of nest 2. 

 Of the four, it was the only one containing hau', apparently of deer, 

 and feathers, a few, gray and probably from the parent bird. This 

 nest measured: inside, 1% inches deep by 2% inches in diameter; 

 outside, 2 inches deep by 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Nest 4 Avas 150 

 yards west of 2 and 3, surrounded by grasses, alongside a Douglas 

 fir seedling 12 inches tall, and 8 feet from the nearest large tree, a 

 10-inch pine. As it was in a hollow, this nest consisted of no more 

 than a Lining, % to % inches thick, of fine grasses and plant fibers and 

 a few pine needles. It contained young 3 or 4 daj^s old when found, 

 July 27. The dissimilarity of nests 2, 3, and 4 can best be expressed 

 by their dry weights, which were 33, 14 and 2 grams, respectively. 



Nests 1 and 2 I found by searching when the parents scolded as I 

 approached. The birds of nest 3 behaved much different!}^; the 

 sitting bird flushed only when almost stepped upon, left without a 

 sound, and never returned to scold on the three occasions I visited 

 it. Nest 4 was found by watching one of the parents carrying food 

 until it dropped from a pine overhead to the ground near the nest. 



Neil Frederick Hadley recently spent two summers studying the 

 species near Boidder, Colo. From about 7,000 feet altitude to timber- 

 line at 11,500 feet in the Colorado Front Range he found 34 graj- 

 headed junco nests, most of them in the "upper montane" and 

 "subalpine" zones between 9,300 and 11,000 feet. He has sent me 

 the following notes from his unpublished study: 



All the nests I found were on the ground and usually well concealed under some 

 form of shelter. Favorite locations were beneath fallen logs, stumps, rocks, 

 conifer seedlings, small shrubs, or tufts of grass, or in the banks of streams and 



