Nesting Time, 



It may appear to our untrained ears. I 

 have watched the operation of nest 

 building and found the male bird very 

 attentive as an escort, but apparently 

 not accustomed to condescending to 

 manual, or rather rostral labor. Sev- 

 eral pairs usually congregate in the same 

 vicinity to breed, the blackbirds being 

 eminently social fellows at all seasons of 

 the year. They are staunch defenders of 

 their homes, flying about the head of an 

 intruder with menacing cries and gestures. 



The California brown towhee fol- 

 lows soon after with a rather bulky 

 nest, placed not very far from the 

 ground, and containing four or five pale 

 greenish, black spotted eggs; and at 

 about the same time the red-winged 

 blackbird fastens its beautiful basket 

 among the swamp grasses, in which to 

 deposit the four or five dull bluish green 

 eggs, spotted and scrawled with brown, 

 black and lilac. 



The western house wren and the red- 

 shafted flicker come next in order among 

 208 



