ROBIN 611 



This last date is the latest for nesting known to us at the time of writing, 

 although it seems likely that still later instances of young in the nest are 

 to be found. In any event, visitors to the Yosemite Valley are likely to 

 see robins engaged in one phase or another of the nesting program from 

 the first of May until toward the end of July, a range in nesting time 

 probably not exceeded by that of any other bird in the Valley. Higher 

 in the mountains the season is somewhat later. Adults were seen carrying 

 food at Tuolumne Meadows on July 7, 1915, but no young were noted 

 out of the nest at that station by the date mentioned. East of the moun- 

 tains, at the Farrington ranch, near Williams Butte, on April 29, 1916, 

 a robin was seen brooding on a nest; on May 9 another bird was found, 

 near Walker Lake, on a nest containing 3 eggs ; and adults were carrying 

 food to young at Mono Lake Post Office on June 30, 1916. 



The nest of the Western Eobin is a stoutly constructed affair, composed 

 of grasses and weed stems, pine needles, or similar material, and well 

 plastered with mud. (See pi. 55a.) The site chosen for the nest varies 

 with circumstances, as does the height at wdiich it is placed above the 

 ground. Probably a majority of the nests are placed in small trees at 

 the edges of clearings ; but there are many exceptions. We have noted 

 nests in good-sized sugar, yellow, and lodgepole pines, in firs, black oaks, 

 wallows, and cottonwoods, and one was seen on a shelf in a farm shed. 

 The height of nests above the ground ranges from 4 to 75 feet in observed 

 instances, although a majority are probably at a height of less than 12 feet. 

 A nest in a young coniferous tree is usually placed near the top, against 

 the trunk, and supported by one or more small horizontal branches. A 

 nest in a black oak or a willow, especially if the tree be a large one, is apt 

 to be located in a slanting or upright crotch ; in the biggest pines, a large 

 outswaying branch is a favorite site. Several were noted amid unusual 

 surroundings. In Yosemite Valley in 1919 there was a nest in a remark- 

 ably exposed situation, in a willow which grew at the side of the main 

 traveled road between the village and Camp Curry, where the road borders 

 directly on the Merced River. Many people, both walking and in auto- 

 mobiles, passed the spot daily, but the parent bird stayed persistently on 

 the nest. In June, 1920, a robin was sitting in her nest on a beam just 

 above the office entrance at Camp Curry. Many hundreds of persons 

 passed daily just beneath her. In a willow tree beside the river above 

 Stoneman Bridge another robin had built her nest early in May, 1919. 

 With the rise of the water at flood time the tree was entirely surrounded 

 by the swirling current 3 or more feet deep ; but undaunted, the parent 

 stayed at her post, incubating her eggs. 



A typical nest measures outside about 4 inches in height by 6 or 7 

 inches in maximum breadth. The cavity is about 31/0 inches across by 



