Il8 MERRIAM, Some Bints of Southern California. I A "ril 



Woodpeckers filling their stalks with acorns, from six to fifteen feet up. 

 As there were no oaks within five miles, the tall stalks of the agaves 

 w'ere the most convenient storehouses for the birds. In the Julien 

 Mountains he found the pines and the dead deciduous oaks girdled with 

 holes. The Flickers at one time made holes in the thin walls of a 

 neighbor's honey house, and the Woodpeckers used the holes for their 

 acorns. Mr. Merriam was at work in the house one day when they 

 came, and the acorns dropped on the bench bv his side. Dozens were 

 also lying on the floor. 



Colaptes cafer. Red-shafted Flicker. — April 8 and 18, 1889, I 

 found Flickers excavating nests in sycamores. June 20, 1894, a pair were 

 brooding in a charred hollow of a small oak. One of the sycamore nests 

 was in the under side of a branch that slanted at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees. The Flicker hung with claws planted in the hole, and with its tail 

 braced at an angle under it, leaned forward to excavate. Using its feet as a 

 pivot, it gradually swung in farther and farther; and when it had gone so 

 far that it had to reach back to throw out its chips, it swung in and out on 

 its feet like an automatic toy wound up for the performance. When it 

 had been building for a week, only the tip of its tail protruded from the 

 nest hole as it w r orked. 



One September Mr. Merriam found Flickers storing acorns in the 

 Julien Mountains. He says they often tried several holes before they 

 found one that the nut would fit. 



Trochilus alexandri. Black-chinned Hummingbird. — March 23, 

 18S9, I found a nest in an oak with nearly fledged young. April 2, 1889, 

 found a Hummingbird building in a sycamore, about ten feet from the 

 ground. April 29, 1889, found one building near the tip of a hanging 

 oak branch, about five feet from the ground. April 3, 1894, found nearly 

 grown young in an oak nest fifteen feet above the ground. April 28, 

 1894, found a Hummingbird feeding young — just hatched — in a nest 

 three to four feet high. May 17, 1894, found one brooding in an oak 

 fifteen to twenty feet from the ground. May 22, 1894, found a nest just 

 begun in an oak four to five feet from the ground. May 26, 1894, found 

 a bird brooding on a nest in a eucalyptus grove, six or seven feet up. 

 June 2, 1S94, found a nest being built at the end of an oak spray three to 

 four feet from the ground. June 20, 1894, found a Hummingbird feeding 

 young out of the nest in a eucalyptus grove. The oak nests were in low, 

 hanging, drooping branches or in oak tops. They were made of yellow, 

 spongy down from the under side of sycamore leaves, and when built 

 among green oak leaves had flakes of light green lichen on the outside. 

 The eucalyptus nests did not have the lichen. One of them was fastened 

 on the curve of a drooping branch, and to make it set true was deepened 

 on the lower side so that it measured an inch and three quarters. 



The peculiar feature of the building was the quivering motion of the 

 bird in moulding. When the material was placed she moulded the nest 

 like a potter, twirling tremulously around against the sides, sometimes 



