GRAY VIREO 271 



diT outside skin or bark of a coarse kind of grass, ratlier loosely woven. But 

 immediately beneath this loose, external layer is a wall of the same material, 

 very closely and strongly woven. The lining of the nest, which is very distinct 

 from the walls, extends throughout the interior. It is much thicker on the bot- 

 tom of the structure, but extends up to the rim, where, however, it is thin. It is 

 composed of fine dry grasses, arranged on the sides of the nest in concentric layers, 

 much as the horsehairs are placed in the nest of Spizella domestica. On the 

 bottom this arrangement does not obtain, but the grasses cross one another seem- 

 ingly at I'andom, forming a soft mat. The walls are uniformly about one-foui'th 

 of an inch in tliickness, and the shape of the entire structure is that of a half 

 sphere. The external diameter at the rim is two and three-fourths inches, and 

 the diameter at the same point inside is two and one-quarter inches. The depth 

 outside is two inches, and inside one inch and three-quarters. The nest is at- 

 tached at the I'im for almost the entire circumference very much like a Red-eyed 

 Vireo's nest, but here the resemblance ceases, for it is not fastened to the many 

 small twigs, on which it rests, that pass diagonally downward, so that it is not 

 even a semi-pensile structure. The thorns of the bush, which are from an inch 

 and a half to two inches long and very sharp, protect the nest in every direction, 

 for the whole is entirely surrounded by twigs and small branches. 



He states further : "The structure is, as a whole, very symmetrical, 

 but is widely different from that of other Vireos which breed in the 

 neighborhood." 



James Murdock, of Glendale, Calif., in a letter to Mr. Bent, states 

 that the nests he has found have usually been small and without any 

 colors that stand out against the background ; the spot is, therefore, 

 quite difficult to see. He says that on one occasion he found the nest 

 "only after watching the bird hop repeatedly from branch to branch 

 in the chaparral, always seemingly following the same routine. This 

 bird usually entered from the left side of the tree and progressed by 

 hopping from branch to branch around the outside of the bush facing 

 me and then bj^ going through the bush back nearly to the spot at which 

 it first perched. I found the nest near this location." 



Wilson C. Hanna writes to Mr. Bent: "My notes record 13 nests, 

 and these have been between 214 feet and 8 feet from the ground, 

 averaging 4 feet. The host shrubs have been about equally divided 

 between big sagebrush {Artemida trident ata) , antelopoe-brush (Pur- 

 shia glandulosa) ^ and greasewood chamise {Adenostoma fascicula- 

 tum), and a single nest each in mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus 

 hetulaefolius) and pinyon {Pinus TnonopJiylla) y 



Eggs. — Scott (1885) discovered a nest in Arizona on May 26 which 

 was apparently finished, Vv^th the female sitting very close. He says : 

 "Daily visits to the spot showed the same circumstances obtaining until 

 May 30, when the first egg was laid ; and then an ^^g was laid daily 

 until June 2, when the laying was completed, four eggs being in this 

 case the full set." He says further that the eggs are "rather rounded 

 in general shape, though one end is somewhat sharper than the other. 

 The ground-color is rosy when fresh, becoming a dead white when 



