NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 355 



county, Arizona. The limits of its distribution while breeding, were 

 between the altitudes of 2800 and 4000 feet, and the locality where it 

 was found most abundant is where the mesquites terminate and the 

 oaks begin. The smooth, flat mesas, and the broad, open bottoms of 

 the wilder canon are quite as much frequented by it as the rough and 

 broken hillsides. The bird is exceedingly active, rapidly searching 

 the limbs of trees and bushes for food, constantly uttering its clear 

 liquid song. It is rarely found higher up than fifteen feet in trees and 

 bushes. Two young males which had just left the nest were taken by 

 Mr. Scott on May 26, and a nest was discovered the same day and 

 others were found at different dates till June 11. They were built in 

 mesquites and thorn bushes ranging from four to seven feet from the 

 ground. One was attached at the rim for almost the entire circum- 

 ference, very much like a Red-eyed Vireo's nest, but here the re- 

 semblance ceases, for it is not fastened to the many small twigs, on 

 which it rests, that pass diagonally downward, so that it is not even a 

 semi-pensile structure. Others were found situated in upright V 

 shaped forks, with the rims partially attached to small twigs and the 

 bottom resting in the crotch — a Vireo's nest resting in a crotch and in 

 no degree pensile. The materials used in the composition were coarse 

 dry grasses and shreds of bark externally, while the inner portion is 

 composed of fine, dry grasses arranged in concentric layers. The 

 nests found by Mr. Scott contained three and four eggs each respect- 

 ively. The one discovered on May 26 did not contain any eggs until 

 the 30th. This habit of sitting on a finished nest for a considerable 

 time before any eggs are laid he found to be characteristic of the 

 Arizona Jay, Aphelocoma sieberii arizoncs^ (see pages 262-263 of this 

 work). The eggs are rather rounded in their general shape, rosy when 

 fresh, dead white when blown, and rather sparsely spotted with reddish 

 and umber-brown spots, some chiefly at the larger end. Mr. Scott 

 gives the sizes of three eggs from a set of four as .']'] x .59, .78 x .58, 

 •75 X -57) respectively; another of three, .72 x .53, .70 x .55, .68 x .53. * 



635. Certhlola bahamensis Reich [159.] 



Bahama Honey Creeper. 



Hab. Bahamas, Florida Keys and adjacent coast of Southern Florida. 



This little bird as its name indicates belongs to the Bahamas. It 

 occurs in the Florida Keys and strays to the adjacent portions of the 

 southern coast of Florida as far north as Charlotte Harbor. In the 

 Bahamas it nests in April, May and June. It builds in small trees or 



'" For a detailed account of the habits, nests aad eggs of this species see Mr. Scott's article: Breed> 

 ing Habits of some Arizona Birds, in The Auk, II, pp. 321-326. 



