RED CONSPICUOUS IN PLUMAGE 469 
dicated, his rights enforced, there was no fun in scrap- 
ping with a vanquished foe; so magnanimously he 
withdrew from the field. Left alone, the little Vermilion 
wriggled over right side up, and sat ‘panting but still 
full of fight. Evidently he did not know when he was 
beaten. His beady eyes flashed fire, his crest quivered, 
his wings were spread and his tail raised, while every 
individual feather bristled with impotent rage. A small 
brown bird, evidently his mate, flew down near him 
uttering low chirps. With the unreasonableness of his 
sex, he turned like a flash upon her and angrily drove 
her away. After a few moments of rest he was ap- 
parently as gay as ever, and was off again on his wooing, 
no whit less ardent for his defeat. 
His nest was discovered in process of construction 
nine feet from the ground in the mesquite in which his 
mate had been hiding. It was a shallow affair of small 
twigs, fine grasses, vegetable fibre, plant down, and web- 
like stuff probably from a spider’s nest or a cocoon. 
Inside a thin ining of plant down was matted neatly 
about. On April 24 the first egg was laid, and one each 
day thereafter until there were three. Twelve and a 
half days were required for incubation, and during this 
time I never saw the male nearer to the nest than six 
feet. The almost naked nestlings were salmon-pinkish ; 
and, as in the case of most newly hatched birds, the eyes 
were covered with a membrane. On the fourth day 
this parted in a slit, giving them a comical, half-awake 
look, while grayish down stood out thickly on the crown 
and along the back. On the tenth day they were fairly 
