584 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TOSEMITE 



In the matter of voice the Pallid Wren-tit differs from most other small 

 birds in that both sexes utter all of the notes characteristic of the species. 

 Furthermore, the birds give their calls throug'hout the year, with little 

 cessation during the time of the annual molt, and with little if any increase 

 in vocal effort in the courting and nesting season. So far as known, none 

 of the various calls is restricted to use at nesting time; any or all may 

 be heard in fall or winter as well. The most commonly heard utterance, 

 possibly the 'song' of the wren-tit, is a series of whistled notes, all on nearly 

 the same pitch, begun slowly and distinctly, then becoming more rapid, and 

 going into a trill which is ended abruptly : pit, pit, pit, pit-r-r-r-r-r. This 

 call carries well and may be heard easily when the listener is a quarter 

 of a mile or more distant from the bird. Sometimes the notes are given 

 slowly without being run together at the last — pit, pit, pit, pit, etc. Occa- 

 sionally there is heard a series similar in timing to the second, but of 

 different quality — in what might be called a complaining tone — keer, keer, 

 keer, keer, etc. There is also a low, ratchet-like note, sometimes interrupted, 

 again given continuously for several seconds, but never so loud as to be 

 audible more than a few yards away. This is uttered when a pair or 

 group of birds is investigating any unusual occurrence in the brush. 



At nesting time the wren-tits are extremely localized, each pair keepng 

 within a small area, of which the nest is the pivotal point. The nest is a 

 small structure only three or four inches in diameter and the same in 

 height and is seldom easy to find amid the many dense tufts of leaves 

 and small branches in the chaparral. The location of one nest, in grease- 

 wood brush on the hills a mile west of Coulterville on May 11, 1919; 

 required an hour and a half of intensive search. The details of the manner 

 of finding this nest will, perhaps, be of significance. 



When the observer followed up a bird which was calling, it was found 

 to stay in a certain tract about 200 feet square covered with tall grease- 

 wood and scattered small live oaks and toyon bushes. Part of the time 

 two wren-tits could be noted and one of them, which acted somewhat 

 concerned, kept appearing and disappearing. Then the observer began 

 a systematic search, crawling back and forth beneath the brush. After 

 some little time one of the wren-tits came very close, uttering its low 

 'ratchety, screeping' note at intervals, and thereafter kept close watch, at 

 times coming within six feet of the observer and gazing at him intently 

 with one or the other of her (?) white eyes. The. bird continued to move 

 about, now in the brush, then on the ground, in the latter case standing 

 high on her long legs with tail up at a sharp angle to the back. She kept 

 taking in worms (moth larvae), giving each fresh captive a thorough 

 battering on some dead stick and then stuffing it with preceding ones 

 into her bill and throat. Soon she had a mass of these protruding from 



