l6o Barlow, Nesting of the. Hermit Warbler. \_A$ 



moned courage enough to fly to the stub, when both Bluebirds 

 fiercely attacked her, she retreating to a pine on the edge of the 

 woods. Soon she ventured to try again and alighted on the back 

 of the large stub, when instantly the young Woodpeckers set up 

 their squeaky little notes, evidently having heard her through the 

 medium of the wood. She hopped around and up to the hole 

 and one little white head bobbed up. She thrust her head into 

 the cavity, deposited the morsel and was away to the forest once 

 more. During the next few days it was a common sight to see 

 a little white head peering out of the hole, its little owner evi- 

 dently anxious to see the outside world. 



My friend, Mr. L. E. Taylor, a very careful observer, sent me 

 a beautiful nest and five eggs of the Western Winter Wren, 

 which he collected on July 12 near Fyffe, El Dorado Co. He 

 writes that an old nest was shown him by a German prospector 

 and while examining it the new nest was discovered. Mr. Taylor 

 writes as follows: "He said that in his country (Germany) the 

 bird was called the ' Snow King,' as it came only in winter and 

 lived in the snow. From his description I thought it must be the 

 Western Winter Wren, so I got him to show me the nest with a 

 view to photographing it for you and collecting the nest. He 

 said he was prospecting and was ' panning out ' and heard a sort 

 of drumming noise and looked up to see what caused it and saw 

 it was made by the ' Snow King,' which was feeding its young 

 not more than two feet from his head. He watched the bird 

 some time and continued to work near by and to ' pan out ' in 

 the same place. The bird soon became quite fearless and 

 seemed to be not at all afraid of him. 



" The nest is built in the side of a perpendicular bank about 

 four feet high and the nest is half way up and is set into the 

 bank so the outer edge of the nest is even with the face of the 

 bank and just showed the rim and a little moss on careful inspec- 

 tion. The entrance looks like a small hole in the bank. I 

 could just reach the bottom of the nest with my fingers and 

 found some egg shells, showing young had been raised. While 

 talking the matter over I saw a Wren fly down into a prospect 

 hole a short distance away, and it not coming out again, I went 

 to the hole and, stepping into it, flushed the bird from the nest. 



