1017 BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ISLANDS 99 



to make them show themselves again. If it is in a low thorn bush that they dis- 

 appear, no amount of trampling will bring a bird forth, 1)nt as soon as one steps 

 off tlie ])nsh, out he pops and away to another one. I shot a ju venal with fully 

 grown tail, April 2, 1915. and from then on the youngsters were not rare. The 

 eggs have evidently never been discovered, but T l)elieve that the nest is invari- 

 ably l)uilt in the center of a dense patch of cactus. AVhile I was trying to remove 

 a dead bird from such a place, on iMarch 29, and smashing the cactus as I went, 

 I uncovered an unfinished nest, probably pertaining to this species. It was 

 wedged under and between cactus leaves some eight inches above the ground, a 

 three inch ball formed of soft fiber, and with the entrance on one side. Two 

 days later when I returned, some little lining had been added. l)ut tlie situation 

 had been so disturbed that it was deserted before eggs were laid. 



183. Trog:lod3rtes aedon parkmani Audu])on 



Western House Wrex 



J. Grinnell (MS) secured an immature male on Santa Cruz Island, Septem- 

 ber 3, 1903. 



184. Nannus hiemalis pacificus (Baird) 



Western Winter Wren 



Nannus hiemalis pacificus (/) Willett, Pac. Coast Avif., 7, 1912, p. 102. (.') Grinnell, 

 Pac. Coast Avif., 11, 1915, p. 159. 



The single record is that of,a. female taken by C. B. Linton (1) on Santa 

 Cruz Island, October 23, 1908. 



185. Telmatodytes palustris paludicola (Baird) 



TuLE Wren 



On San Nicolas Island, during January, 1911, C. B. Linton (MS) found a 

 pair of these birds about a spring. As he noted them at the same spot for sev- 

 eral weeks, there is small chance that the identity was incorrect. ^lany speci- 

 mens of marsh wrens taken in the lowlands of Los Angeles Count.v during the 

 winter months, however, are referable to T. p. jilcsius, so it is not impossible that 

 the birds which Linton observed were of the latter race. 



186. Sitta canadensis Linnaeus 



Red-breasted Nuthatch 



Sitta canadensis (/) Howell and van Rossem, Condor, xiir, 1911, p. 210. (2) Willett, 

 Pac. Coast Avif., 7, 1912, p. 104. (3) Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avif.. 11, 1915, p. 161. 



During four or five trijis to the wooded top of Santa Cruz Island during the 

 latter part of April, 1911, A. van Rossem and I (1) saw a couple of dozen of 

 these birds, and took six specimens. These average a very little smaller than 

 birds from the mainland and the east, but are otherwise indistinguishable. On 

 Alay 1 I watched an individual excavating a nesting site in a dead stub, so they 

 evidently remain during the entire year. C. B. Linton (2) shot three October 

 3 and 4, 1908. 



