144 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 



own. Not only do they enter the other nests but they may be seen 

 industriously carrying in nesting material. This curious habit, I have 

 observed, is indulged in chiefly when the birds are being watched, — 

 when they feel their homes may be in danger. While nesting mate- 

 rials, such as soft dry grasses, may be carried into any and all of the 

 old nests in the tree where a Large Cactus Wren is nesting, only one 

 nest will receive a lining of the soft down-like substance that envelops 

 the seed of the • silk-cotton tree, and there the eggs or young will 

 be found. I never ascertained that more than one pair of birds nested 

 in a single tree, but found from three to eight nests in a tree occupied 

 by a single pair of birds. 



I first took eggs of this species at Quiribana de Caicara, April lo. 

 1898. The clutch contained only three eggs in which incubation was 

 far advanced. The nest was an old one, doubtless that of Pitangiis 

 sulphiiratits rufipeiinis with a fresh lining. It was a large globular 

 afifair composed of dry grasses, set in a tangle of small limbs of a 

 scrub oak, about 3.5 m. from the ground. The entrance was at one 

 side near the top. In the same tree were six other nests, none of 

 which were occupied and there was apparently only the one pair of 

 birds in the neighborhood. 



Another clutch of three eggs with incubation far advanced was 

 taken April 17th. The nest was about 4.5 m. up in a scrub oak. that 

 stood well out in the savanna. It was an old nest, globular in form, 

 ragged and dilapidated in appearance, but it had been supplied with 

 a little fresh lining of soft grasses. A new nest of Pitangns had been 

 built in the same tree, not ten feet from the old one, but had been 

 deserted by the original owners and the wrens had selected the old 

 one in preference. 



A clutch of five incubated eggs of this species (now in the Tring 

 Museum), was taken at Caicara, June 27, 1898. They were of a 

 "glossy brownish brick-red, darker spots being traceable.""^ Others 

 are "whitish red, the brick-red patches leaving some of the ground 

 color free."i They measure "24.5 x 18.5; 24.5 x 17.4; 24 x 17.5 mm."^ 

 The nest in this case was as usual an old one and much dilapidated. 

 It was situated about 2.4 m. up in a small scrub oak. There was a 

 much newer nest in the same tree not over 1.2 m. from the one con- 

 taining the eggs. Both birds were present and manifested much 

 concern, scolding me soundly. Before I climbed the tree to search 



iBerlepsch & Hartert. p.j^. 



