24 | ‘THE WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 
A more typical nest, freshly examined, is placed at a height of six feet in 
the top of a tiny fir sapling, which required the support of a chance armful of 
leaning vine-maple poles. The nest proper is an immense affair, eight and a 
half inches deep and twelve inches by eight in diameter outside, and two and 
a half in depth and four in width inside. It would weigh about three pounds, 
and is, therefore, quite compact, altho the moss, which is the largest element 
in its composition, holds a large quantity of moisture. Twigs from six inches 
to a foot in length enter into the exterior construction, and these are them- 
selves moss-bearing. Stripping off the outer moss-coat, one comes to the 
matrix or crucible-shaped vessel of rotten wood, an inch or more in thickness 
thruout, and sodden with moisture. Within this receptacle, in turn, appears 
another cup with walls three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and composed 
solely of dried grasses and moss, neatly woven and turned. The innermost 
lining comprises the same materials, not very carefully smoothed, but amaz- 
ingly dry, considering the character of their surroundings. The brim of the 
nest is strengthened by bark-strips, the inner fiber of cedar bark being ex- 
clusively employed for this purpose; while the finishing coat consists of moss, 
compacted and flawless. ‘There are, in fact, few nests to compare with that 
of the Varied Thrush in strength, elaborateness, and elegance. 
WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 
A. O. U. No. 767. Sialia mexicana occidentalis (owns. ). 
Synonyms.—CairorNIA BriuEsrrp. Mexican Briueprrp. ‘TOWNSEND'S 
BLUEBIRD. 
Description — Adult male: Head and neck all around and upperparts rich 
smalt blue, brighter on hindneck, rump and wings, paler on sides of neck and on 
throat; the shafts of wing-quills and tail- feathers and the exposed tips of the 
former black; more or less chest on scapulars usually irregularly continuous 
across back; sides of breast and sides, continuous across breast, chestnut; belly, 
flanks, crissum and under tail-coverts dull grayish blue (campanula blue to pearl 
blue). Bill black; feet blackish; iris dark brown. Jn winter touches of chestnut 
appear on crown, hindneck and sides of head and neck, and the blue of throat is 
slightly veiled by grayish brown skirting. Adult female: Somewhat like male 
but ev erywhere ‘paler and duller; blue of upperparts clear only on rump, tail, 
lesser and middle wing-coverts and outer edges of primaries, there lighter than in 
male (campanula blue to flax-flower blue) ; first primary and outermost rectrices 
edged with white; chestnut of scapulars obsolete, merged with dingy mottled 
bluish or brownish-gray of remaining upperparts ; exposed tips of remiges dusky ; 
outer web of first primary whitish; ‘blue of underparts replaced by sordid bluish 
gray, and chestnut of subdued tone (pale cinnamon-rufous ) veiled by grayish- 
brown tips of feathers. Young birds somewhat resemble the adult female. but the 
