404 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YO SEMITE 



Nest no. 1. Four young several days old, eyes not yet opened but some down on 

 heads. Eim of nest 390 mm. above surface of water; nest 110 mm, 

 in outside diameter and 70 mm. high. 



Incomplete (presumably deserted) ; only the outer wall of larger tule 

 material was present. Rim of nest about 400 mm. above water. 



Complete and ready for eggs. 



Four eggs, heavily incubated. Eim little over 200 mm. from water. 



One young bird fully fledged and ready to leave nest. 



Four eggs, fresh. Nest about 8 feet above the water in a willow 

 sapling, there being no standing tules in the pond where this nest 

 was located. 



Complete and ready for eggs. Location as for no. 6. 



Four eggs, fresh. Eim of nest about 300 mm. above water. 



Four young, only a day or two old. 

 Nest no. 10. Two eggs, fresh. Eim of nest 310 mm. above water. 

 Nest no. 11. Three eggs, one with incubation commenced, the other two half incu- 

 bated. Eim of nest 445 mm. above water. (See detailed description 

 of this nest below.) 



It is likely that some of the nests found completed though empty had 

 been built earlier and were subsequently deserted, for the Red-wing is 

 prone to desert a nest disturbed while in process of construction. The 

 finding of a set of four fresh eggs would show, however, that Q^g laying 

 had not been entirely ended for the season. Elsewhere, eleven days has 

 been recorded as the time necessary to rear a brood after hatching, and a 

 like period for the incubation of the eggs, so that the nest containing the 

 fledged young bird must have been commenced about April 10 or at least 

 shortly thereafter. 



Three or four eggs constitute the usual completed set. The set of two 

 eggs in nest no. 10 was watched for two days, but the number was not 

 increased ; it may have been deserted before completion. The nest which 

 held the single nearly fledged young bird was tilted at such an angle as 

 to suggest that the other members of the brood had tumbled into the water 

 and been lost to the bass which lurked in the depths below. A nest (of 

 subspecies calif ornicus) found at Dudley, on Smith Creek, June 19, 1920, 

 contained six eggs, probably a maximum complement. The ground color 

 of the eggs is pale blue, and the scattered markings of dark brown or 

 black, chiefly at the larger end of the egg, consist of dots, spots, streaks, 

 and lines, the latter often running around the pole of the egg. 



The Red-wings at Williams Butte and elsewhere near Mono Lake (sub- 

 species nevadensis) lose no time after their spring. arrival in commencing 

 their nesting program. The first females were seen on May 6 ; by May 11 

 they had paired off with the males, which had arrived earlier, A female 

 taken on May 17 had already begun laying, and on May 26 two nests were 

 found, in one of which the eggs were already partly incubated. But there 

 was considerable variation in the different birds' dates of egg-laying, for 



