302 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and half swallowed, head first, one of the large young. At another 

 nest, containing two large young, I shot the adult male for a speci- 

 men, after which I found the female dead in a nearby hole, which 

 necessitated taking the two young also. After I had left for home, 

 my companion, Frank C. Willard, took a set of three fresh eggs on 

 June 11, from a nest 14 feet up in a small giant cactus; this was 

 probably a second laying. 



Mr. Oilman (1915), who has had considerable experience with this 

 species, writes: 



The nests are found in giant cactus, cottonwood and willow, and in that 

 order as to frequency, the giant cactus leading. Nests are in the giant cactus 

 or Saguaro as it is called, far from water, and in cottonwood and willow along 

 the river, on banks of the canals, or even standing in stagnant water pools. 

 Of twenty-seven nests examined, containing eggs or young, twenty-one were in 

 the Saguaro, four in wiUow, and two in cottonwood. Others were seen in 

 cottonwood but too difficult of access, and many in the cactus were out of 

 reach. If careful count were made I believe about ninety per cent would be 

 found in the cactus. Nests in cottonwood and willow ranged from five to 

 twenty-five feet from the ground, and in Saguaros from eleven to twenty-five 

 or thirty feet. * * * 



The entrance to the nest holes varies much, as may be seen from the figures 

 given. The smallest entrance measured 2% inches and the largest 4% inches. 

 The shallowest hole was ten inches, and the deepest eighteen inches. * * * 

 The entrance to the eighteen inch hole was three and one-half inches in 

 diameter, and while the ratio is not constant, the shallower holes tend to 

 have smaller entrances, and the deeper holes have larger entrances. * * * 

 From the few measurements taken it may be stated that the bottom of the nest 

 hole is from four and one-half to six inches in diameter. It is hardly correct 

 to use the term diameter, as many of the bole bottoms were not nearly cir- 

 cular, one I measured being four inches one way and six the other. This 

 variation seemed to be governed by the size of the cactus, as in the smaller 

 plants there was not room to excavate a large circular bottom, and it had 

 to be stretched one way. 



In the lower Colorado Valley, Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1914) found 

 that "at least two pairs were nesting in dead cottonwood stumps in 

 the drowned-out area of the river bottom. A nesting hole located 

 here was eighteen feet above the ground, in a large stub." He also 

 mentions the following nests found in the saguaro belt: "On the 

 Arizona side, April 22, excavation sixteen and one-half feet above 

 ground in cactus thirty-one feet high, contained two fresh eggs; 

 April 24, excavation twenty feet above the ground, not investigated. 

 On the California side, April 23, excavation ten and one-third feet 

 above the ground, in cactus twenty-eight feet high, contained on 

 infertile egg and two small young." 



Major Bendire (1895) writes: 



It nests at varying distances from the groimd from 8 to 40 feet, generally 

 at heights of about 15 feet. I have the indurated form of a nesting cavity 

 of this species now before me, showing its exact shape. The hardened walls 



