Vol. XIII 



Merriam, Some Birds of Southern California. 123 



note, the rest going down the scale, as keep, keep, keep, keep, keep' -it. 

 keep' -it. keep' -it. There is also a rapid run with a rolled r. 



The Wren-tits are hard birds to stud}' because it is so difficult to pene- 

 trate the brush where they live ; but one gets occasional glimpses of them 

 outside. I once saw one break up a Gnatcatcher's nest in an oak on the 

 edge of the chaparral, and afterwards came on one that was persistently 

 feeding the fledgling of a Lazuli Bunting, although both parent birds were 

 on the spot. 



Psaltriparus minimus californicus. California Bush-tit. — In March 

 and April, iSSg, and April, 1S94, I found a number of the birds building. 

 One of the nests I was watching pulled down of its own weight, closing in 

 the entrance. Its wall, made of fine gray moss and oak blossoms, was half 

 an inch to an inch thick, and had a wadding of feathers inside. I counted 

 three hundred, and there were a great many more. There must have been 

 several dozen chicken feathers, each from two to three inches in length. 

 The builders profited by experience in an interesting way. Their second 

 nest, to begin with, was not nearly so long as the first one, although that 

 may have been from the additional labor the extra length would entail. 

 Thev hung the nest between the forks of a twig whose cross twig could 

 support the top. At first they put the entrance about half an inch below 

 this supporting cross twig, but afterwards moved it up above the twig so 

 that the roof could not possibly close the hole as it had done in the first 

 nest. This time the hole itself, which was usually the girth of the bird, 

 was made much larger than in the old nest. The birds used the materials 

 of the deserted nest to make the new one. In building, they began at the 

 top of the open pocket — at the cross twig — leaving the roof till the last, 

 though thev made the first entrance while the lower part of the nest 

 merely hung in loose fibres — was not formed at all. In making the body 

 of the pocket they would light on the cross twig and swing themselves 

 down inside, hanging by their claws while they placed their material and 

 moulded and shaped the pocket from the inside. When the nest was 

 completed it had a quantity of brown oak tassels around the entrance, 

 which was finished neatly with lichen. 



The Bush-tits are rapid workers. I found a nest begun one day, only 

 a filmy spot in the leaves, and the next day it had grown to be a gray 

 bag over eight inches long, though I could still see daylight through it. 

 The birds work together and give their fine call of sckrit, schrit, as they 

 go and come about the nest. Their long tails give them a long tilting 

 flight. The Bush-tits are very abundant at Twin Oaks. I have often 

 found two of their nests in one oak. In 1S89 I found eight nests in oaks, 

 from seven to fifteen feet from the ground, but none in ' low bushes.' 

 Mr. Merriam told me that out of dozens of nests, he had found only one 

 in a bush. He thought the live oak nests averaged from eight to nine 

 feet from the ground. He said the birds often weighted the nests with 

 sand and sometimes built a projecting roof over the entrance. 



Polioptila cserulea obscura. Western Gnatcatcher. — April 29, 



