NESTING-TIME 



They had again commenced their nest in this favored retreat 

 when the mother bird, in shaping her basket with her body, 

 evidently felt one of the sharp spines pricking her breast 

 through the bottom of her cradle. It was quite evident that the 

 litde ones would be killed, if, indeed, the eggs were not 

 punctured by the thorn, so the birds were compelled to aban- 

 don their work and commence anew. Both species of hum- 

 ming-birds evidently raise two broods in a season, as fresh eggs 

 are often found as late as the first week of June. Think of the 

 vitality of the little Allen's hummer, one of the tiniest of North 

 American birds, to fly from Central America or Mexico to 

 Northern California, build its nest and rear two broods of 

 young, all in the short space of five months ! 



Another tiny breeder of March is the California bush-tit, 

 which begins the construction of its elaborate, pendulous nest 

 early in the month. The eggs are plain white, delicately 

 flushed with pink when fresh, and often number as memy as 

 eight or nine. 



The plain titmouse, another resident species, commences 

 nest-building late in March or early in April. It is a very 

 common bird among the live-oaks and has a sweet, high- 

 pitched, vivacious little song which is a characteristic strain dur- 

 ing the early springtime, ranking well among the performances 

 of our minor and more obscure songsters. Its usual call-note 

 is somewhat after the style of the chickadee. Its nest is made 

 in a hollow tree or in a deserted flicker's hole, where it lays 

 from six to nine white eggs sprinkled with reddish brown dots. 

 The plain titmouse may be readily recognized by his severe 

 quaker dress of gray, his topknot and his lively manners, as he 

 bobs about on bark or spray, head up or down, pecking away 



mn 



