NESTING-TIME 



cliff-swallows are also plastering their nests under the eaves 

 of barns. Both species use mud for the outside of their homes, 

 with straw and feathers for lining. The barn-swallow's nest 

 is formed like a half-cup, open at the top, while the cliff- 

 swallow's home is gourd-shaped, closed except for a hole upon 

 the side like the neck of a bottle. The eggs of both species are 

 white, heavily dotted with brown. 



The sunmier warbler, russet-backed thrush, and black- 

 headed grosbeak, three of our typical summer-breeding birds, 

 also begin nesting during the first half of May. The lovely 

 little summer warbler, so well known both in the eastern and 

 western states, with its fine gold plumage faintly streaked on 

 the breast with reddish brown, and its vivacious crescendo 

 song, is a familiar summer resident here. Its nest is placed in 

 the upright fork of a tree, and composed of soft seeds and plant 

 shreds, felted and woven into a compact home. The eggs, 

 four or five in number, are whitish or grayish in color, spotted 

 with brovm of various shades, the markings, usually heavier 

 around the larger end, tending to form an irregular ring. The 

 thrush builds a rather bulky nest in a bush or thicket, often 

 near a stream, and its eggs are bluish green spotted with brown. 

 The black-headed grosbeak makes a very flimsy apology for 

 a nest out of sticks and rootlets, in which are deposited three 

 or four greenish eggs, heavily spotted with brown. The loud, 

 sweet and clear, but monotonous song of the male bird is 

 uttered from morning until night. It may be expressed by the 

 syllables cherrie, cherrie, cherrie, £/iee, chee, chee f 



The list of loiterers who do not begin to breed until during 

 the latter half of May is small, including the mourning-dove, 

 which lays two white eggs upon the merest platform of twigs. 



1117] 



