‘ a 9 ren 
DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 357 
leaves and in the crevices of bark. Of the first few 
nests | saw being built none were finally occupied on 
their original sites. One pair near my camping place 
moved their nest and made it over three times before 
being satisfied to deposit eggs in it. Each time that 
the nest was nearly complete, the birds would discover 
a more suitable site, and then the work of tearing down 
would begin, and it would be moved piecemeal to the 
new place. Very thin strips of vegetable vellum and 
rotten bark-fibre made up the bulk of the nest. The 
edges at the top were drawn in, making the diameter of 
the opening less than that of the centre of the cavity. 
The outside was laced over with cobwebs and spangled 
over with lichens from the oaks, which were bound on 
with webs also. The selection of lichens varied consid- 
erably with the pairs of birds, some choosing dark brown 
ones with black backs, while others were paler or brighter, 
— the usual nest being pale green or silver-gray in color.” 
Mr. Chamberlin does not record the incubation or de- 
velopment of the broods, so I turn to my own records 
and find that a nest discovered in a low tree near San 
José, California, contained four eggs on May 3. The 
mother was observed on the nest at every visit, and the 
male near by the tree. She was fearless and let me ap- 
proach very near, almost near enough to put my hand on 
her. On May 10 the eggs had hatched and four skinny 
pink nestlings, no larger than small grasshoppers, lay in 
the nest, —a helpless mass of wriggling legs, wings, and 
necks, ending in funny knoblike heads. They were fed 
by regurgitation until the feathers were well started, and 
