GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 443 
soon as spring fever stirs in his veins, he seeks his 
favorite haunts and flits about, a gay bachelor, among 
the buckbush and willows for a week or so before his 
sweetheart appears on the scene. After her arrival fully 
two weeks are squandered in the frivolities of courting 
before the more serious business of housekeeping is be- 
gun, but you may be sure he has had lis eye on a special 
cosy fork of a branch, and that he will not allow any 
other householder to “jump his claim.” Then one 
sunny day about the tenth of June, you will see him 
bring a bunch of plant fibre and, placing it in the chosen 
crotch, jump on it and pack it into place with feet and 
bill. He has worked hard to get it, tugging with all 
his little strength to loosen some of it, which is the in- 
ner bark of the willows, and chewing it back and forth 
in his beak to render it fine and pliable. After the first 
bit has been put in place the female does the shaping 
and weaving, while the male brings the material. When 
the foundations and walls are completed, a warm lining 
of feathers is tucked and wadded carefully inside the 
small structure, and the cradle is ready. The thickness 
of this lining varies with the altitude and location, being 
thicker in higher or more exposed localities, while in 
some instances I have found nests with scarcely any 
lining and comparatively thin walls, on the sunny side of 
a cation. These thinly built nests were invariably in 
pines and close to the trunk, and further from the ground 
than the heavier ones. Of the latter, several particularly 
warm ones were in willows and aspens and were lined 
with both wool and short hair from cattle or deer. Of 
