422 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



I found another nest containing two eggs Avith large embryos. This one was also 

 in a pine tree near the extremity of one of the limljs, about IG feet from the 

 ground. The only way this could be reached was by leaning a pole against 

 the limbs of the tree and climl)ing to the nest, in which I "succeeded after a 

 good deal of labor and trouble. All of the nests found Avere placed, in nearly 

 similar situations, on horizontal limbs of pines, Phms pondcrosa, from 15 to 45 

 feet from the ground, in rather open situations at the outskirts of the heavier 

 forests, and usually on side hills with a southeasterly exposure, at an altitude 

 (estimated) of from 5,000 to 5,500 feet. 



Both of Mr. Grale's nests were placed in low, scrubby pines, Pinus pondcrosa, 

 the first in one about 20 feet high, which branched out from the ground, with a 

 probable spread of 15 feet. The nest was situated about 30 inches from the 

 main stem, near a bunch of scrub, and firmly saddled on a three-pronged fork of 

 a stout limb 3 inches in diameter, with smaller ones growing around it, so that 

 nothing save the overthrow of the tree itself could possibly dislodge it. This 

 nest was placed about 8 feet from the ground, and is now, with the eggs it con- 

 tained, in the United States National Museum collection, having been kindly 

 pi'esented by Mr. Gale. His second nest with eggs, taken April 16, 1889, was 

 also found in a small, scrubby pine only 12 feet high and 6 inches in diameter; 

 it was placed about 9 feet from the ground, and resembles the first in every 

 particular, being a little bulkier perhaps. 



He found five other nests of this species, none of them containing eggs, 

 however; four of these were placed in spruce trees, none over 25 feet from the 

 ground and two only 8 feet up. Mr. Gale's nest, now in the United States 

 National Museum, was the only one found by him saddled on a branch away 

 from the stem. The majority of sites chosen offered little concealment, l)ut in 

 every case especial care was observed in selecting one affording thorough j)ro- 

 tection from the assaults of the fierce March winds which prevail in this moun- 

 tain region. The nests examined by me near Camp Harney, Oregon, were all 

 found in sheltered situations on side hills where they were well protected from 

 heavy winds, and the horizontal limbs selected for l)uilding sites were usually 

 strong and bushy, with numerous small twigs among which the nests could be 

 securely built. All of the nests observed were saddled on such limbs, sometimes 

 fully 15 feet froni the trunk. 



An average nest of Clarke's Nutcracker may be described as folloAvs: The 

 nest proper is placed on a platform of dry twigs, mostly those of the western juni- 

 per, Jun'tperufi occidn/fnJis, and of the white sage, avei'aging about three-sixteenths 

 of an inch in thickness, and varying from S inches to a foot in length. These 

 twigs, whicli also help to form tlie sides of the nest, are deftly matted together 

 and to the smaller twigs of the liiub on which the nest is saddled; they are 

 further held together and Ijound by coarse strips of the inner bark of tlu^ juniper 

 tree; these strips are mixed among- the twigs and are very suitable for this })ur- 

 pose. The inner nest is a mass of these same bark strips, only nmch finer, 

 having been well picked into fine fiber; it is quilted together with decayed 



