TROGLODYTES PAIJKMANNI. 423 



valleys and tho aspen copses of the higher cafions of the mountains. In- 

 deed it is tho only strictly arboreal species of this family which resides in 

 summer in the Middle Province, and there much more rarely seeks the 

 society of man or the protection of his presence than the Rock or Bewick's 

 ^^ i-ens. That they are somewhat inclined to do so, however, we saw 

 occasional evidence, particularly in one instance, where a jiair had a nest 

 somewhere about the trading-house on the Indian Reservation near Pyramid 

 Lake. This pair had become so familiar and confiding that the constant 

 presence or passing in and out of persons did not alarm them in the least. 

 Among the large cotton-wood trees near by, which extended in scattered 

 groves or clumps for several miles along the river, they were extremely 

 abundant, and their lively, agreeable songs were continually heard. They 

 were equally abundant in the high canons of the East Humboldt and 

 Wahsatch Mountains, their ftivorite resort in the latter being the aspen 

 copses of the pine-region, where they and the Robins were the most abun- 

 dant birds. Very numerous nests of this species were found, their situation 

 being various, although most of them were similar in this respect; the 

 prevailing character being that of a large mass of rubbish filled in behind 

 the loosened bark of the trunk of a tree, usually only a few feet from the 

 ground, the entrance a natural crevice or a woodpeckers hole; it was 

 always warmly lined with feathers, and veiy frequently possessed the 

 ornamental addition of a cast-off snake-skin. One nest was placed behind 

 a flat mass of a small shrul) {Spircea ccespitosd), which grew in moss-like 

 patches against the face of a cliff. Another one, and the only one not 

 concealed in some manner, was built in the low crotch of an aspen, 

 having for its foundation an abandoned Robin's nest. It consisted of a 

 somewhat conical pile of sticks, nearly closed at the top, but with a small 

 opening just large enough to admit the owner. Including its T)ulky base, 

 the total height of this structure was about fifteen inches. 



List of specimens. 



170, i a<l.; West Humboldt Mountains, September 7, 1SC7. 5^— 0?— 2^^; 1}| 



h — 5— 'i— WV Upp*"!' luaiidible, Ijoriiblack, the tornium lilaceouswliite; lower, lila- 

 ceous wliiti.sli, deepeniug into purplish-slaty at end; iris, uinber; tarsi and toes, 

 browTiishwliitisli. 



