MACGILLIVBAV S GROVND WABBLER. 159 



species is common." It is a great lover of seclusion, refusing 

 to leave the ground while you are in the vicinity of its home, 

 or to show itself; while the G. Philadelphia has a habit of clam- 

 bering up trees to forage and sing while its mate is nestling be- 

 low. 



The most complete account thus far, of its breeding, appears 

 in The Birds of the Colorado Valley. 



Many nests of this bird have come to the notice of naturalists. They are 

 usually built on the ground in close covert, though said to be sometimes 

 placed in a bush a foot or so high — in one instance given by Nuttall, " near 

 the ground, in the dead mossy limbs of a fallen oak, and further partly hid- 

 den by a long tuft cf Usnea." The shape differs much according to the sit- 

 uation, the ground-built specimens being quite broad and flattish, not more 

 thffn half as high as wide, with a shallow cavity, and quite uniformly thick 

 walls. Those placed in bushes were more cup-like. Some have been de- 

 scribed as consisting almost entirely of mosses; others are built of various 

 soft, fibrous materials, especially bark strips and frayed-out plant-stems, with 

 fine grasses, mostly circularly arranged, and lined with slender rootlets. 

 When a nest is disturbed the female manifests her displeasure by a sharp 

 chip. 



In the mountains of Utali and Colorado, the eggs are laid 

 before the middle of June ; but on the coast, even as far north 

 as Puget's sound, the dates of laying and hatching appear to 

 be at least a fortnight earlier. The eggs, as circumstantially de- 

 scribed by Dr. Coues, from several sets before him collected by 

 Ridgway, are white (doubtless a flesh-tint when fresh), variously 

 blotched, in a wholly irregular manner, with very dark brown, 

 almost blackish ; and further spotted and smirched with several 

 shades of lighter, more reddish brown, together with the usual 

 shell-markings of undefinable neutral tint. Some of the blotches, 

 especially the darker ones, are remarkably large ; and the whole 

 aspect of the egg is different from that usually seen in this family, 

 where fine speckling with reddish is the rule. The extremes meas- 

 ure .70X.50 and .65X.52 of an inch. Four or five are laid 

 in a clutch. The devotion of the parents to their home and 

 fledglings is very striking. 



