DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 355 
the birds themselves, although so small, have all the 
independent airs of that pest. Some one‘ has very aptly 
described them as “ balls of gray down with a tail stuck 
in.” Fascinatingly fluffy mites they are, busy all day 
long with their own affairs, ridding the trees of scales, 
insect eggs, bark lice, and many other injurious forms of 
insect life. They are constantly in motion, hanging head 
down under the slender twigs, chickadee-fashion, picking 
at every crevice in the bark and every fold of a leaf-bud, 
if perchance a bug lie hidden there, and many a tree 
owes its good condition to their industry. 
The nesting habits of this species are very like those of 
the Californian bush-tit. Among the underbrush of dry 
watercourses or on oak-covered hillsides you will find 
their gourd-like nests, usually pensile but often nestled 
among the thick twigs of a bunch of mistletoe. Wild 
blackberry vines, also, are favorite nesting sites. | Wher- 
ever the pinkish gray cradle may swing, the jolly little 
housekeepers are friendly and fearless. You may watch 
them at a distance of three or four yards without pro- 
ducing the slightest interruption in their work. When 
the young are out of the nest and sitting like wee gray 
puff-balls in unwinking silence in the bushes, the adult 
will feed them when you are only two feet away; and 
fully fledged young may, with infinite patience, be coaxed 
to perch on twigs held in your hand. 
These queer little gray elves endure cold that would 
kill many a larger bird, and are as lively in the winter as 
in the summer. Almost as soon as the last brood is 
reared, they join the flocks of their neighbors and forage 
