CALIFOBNIA BUSH-TIT 581 



all sides. The birds pay little or no attention to the larger twigs and 

 branches, and they seldom fly out beyond the leafage as kinglets and 

 Audubon Warblers are accustomed to do. 



Mention of kinglets suggests making comparison between these two 

 groups of birds, inasmuch as both are of small size, both feed among foliage, 

 and thej^ are to be found together in the foothill country during the winter 

 season, though they summer in quite different zones. The bush-tit has a 

 short thickish bill, the wing is relatively short, and the tail is decidedly 

 longer than the body. The bird seldom flutters its wings and the members 

 of a flock string along after one another in parallel courses. The kinglets, 

 on the other hand, have proportionately longer and more slender bills, 

 and the mng is long"er while the tail is as short as the body ; they often 

 twist about, end for end, and they do a great deal of fluttering of the 

 wings. Only the Golden-crown, of the kinglets, is a flocking species, and 

 its flock behavior is not at all like that of bush-tits. In point of color the 

 Bush-tit is predominantly gray, whereas the kinglets are chiefly greenish- 

 colored as to body plumage and each of the kinglets, at least in the male 

 sex, has special bright markings on the head. 



The bush-tit is unlike its near relatives, the chickadee and titmouse, 

 for it builds its own nest while both these other birds rear their broods 

 within holes. The bush-tit's nest is an elongated pensile affair, 8 to 11 

 inches in length and 3 or 4 inches in greatest outside diameter. Entrance 

 is gained through a hole on one side near the top, and the space within is 

 tubular, flared somewhat toward the bottom. The whole cavity bears a 

 suggestive resemblance to the interior of a woodpecker's nest hole, the 

 sort of place so prized by chickadees at nesting time! The bush-tit's nest 

 is composed of soft materials such as moss, lichens, spider web, and willow 

 down, all of which is closely felted together. The structure is usually 

 placed in an oak tree, at a height of 10 or 12 feet above the ground, and 

 so attached that it hangs in or just beneath the crown of the season's new 

 leaves. When engaged in building, and indeed at any stage in the nesting 

 program, the members of a pair stay close about the nest site and make 

 no effort to keep the location a secret. Their home is safe from the usual 

 types of nest robbers. 



We did not visit the foothill country early enough in spring to observe 

 the beginning of nesting, but data gained later in the season indicate that 

 building is commenced early in April. A new nest w^as seen at El Portal 

 on May 2, 1916. At Pleasant Valley, in 1915, numerous pairs were noted 

 on May 23 and 24, and young out of the nest were seen on May 28. Along 

 Smith Creek a family group of adults and young was seen on June 2, 

 1915. The broods are fairly large, 6 perhaps being an average; thus a 

 group of 8 would constitute but one family. 



