THE GROUND TIT. . 43 



substances, all very closely impacted and felted together some- 

 what after the manner of the humming-bird's. The whole is 

 warmly lined with a silky fabric of the soft down of various 

 plants ; or with exceedingly fine grass and a few feathers. Al- 

 though so delicate, the walls are firm and enduring. The four 

 eggs, measuring just half an inch in length, are of an oblong-oval 

 shape, and pale greenish-white, sprinkled over the entire sur- 

 face with fine dottings of purple, reddish-brown and black. 

 These dots are as dull in color, but smaller, and more numer- 

 ous, than those on the eggs of P. ccerulea. 



25. THE ARIZONA GNATCATCHER. 

 POLIOPTILA PLUMBEA Baird. 



The Arizona or lead-colored gnatcatchcr is peculiar to Ari- 

 zona a?td JVczu JMexlco. Its habits are judged to be the same 

 as those of the other gnatcatchers, but little is positively known. 



Family CHAM.^ID^ — Ground Tits. 



26. THE GROUND TIT. 



CHAM.^iA FASCIATA Gambel. 



Ground \A^ren ; Fasciated Tit. 



The little ground wren seems to be confined exclusively to the 

 coast counti'y of Califorjtia from Ft. Tejon to the shore, and 

 from San Diego to Sacramento. It is not rare, and frequents 

 damp places and shrubby undergrowth. My correspondents 

 find its nests completed at San Diego about the last of April, 

 and placed in shrubs and vines two or three feet high. They 

 are composed of straw and twigs mixed with feathers and firm- 

 ly interwoven. A nest collected near San Francisco is a com- 

 pactly built, neat and warm structure. Its thick walls are made 

 wholly of strips of inner-bark, a few weed-stems, grass-flowers, 

 and some stray twine ; but all through it are mixed bits of sheep's 

 wool, gleaned by the birds from thorny bushes, which fill up 

 every interstice and felt the whole firmly together. The brim 



