28 Bendireow Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus and Pipilo aberti. [January 



months they were hard to secure, and not by any means as social 

 in their habits as the Canon Towhee. I found my first nest with 

 eggs on May 13, 1S72, placed in a willow thicket, about three and a 

 half feet from the ground. Outwardly this was composed exclu- 

 sively of the soft inner bark of the Cottonwood, resting on a slight 

 platform of small sticks and dry weed stalks. Inside the nest was 

 lined with finer material of the same kind, and a few horse-hairs. 

 This first nest was a rather flimsy affair ; most of those found 

 subsequently were much better constructed, principally dry weed 

 stalks, the soft inner bark of dry cottonwood logs, swamp grasses, 

 fibres of wild hemp, an occasional leaf, and fine roots, entering into 

 the composition of the nests. A few only, were lined with horse- 

 hair, a material probably furnished by my herd which grazed in 

 the vicinity and was daily driven into the creek bottom to water. 

 The measurements of a nest taken by myself ai'e 5^ inches 

 across externally by 4 inches in depth. Inner diameter, 3 inches ; 

 depth, z\. The inner cavity is very small for the size of this 

 bird, scarcely large enough to accommodate the body. Its long 

 tail sticks up out of the nest, when sitting on its eggs, at a per- 

 fect right angle, and it certainly must be an uncomfortable 

 position for the bird to stay in for any length of time. 



All the nests I have found, about eighty in number, were placed 

 in the densest thickets in the creek bottom proper, with but one 

 single exception. This I found in the forks of a mesquite bush 

 about four feet from the ground, on the open plain fully four hun- 

 dred yards from its customary breeding places, and as this nest 

 contained the only set of four eggs I found of this species, I made 

 certain of the perfect identity of the parent by shooting it finally, 

 after a tedious wait of over an hour. Fully sixty of these nests 

 were placed in willow thickets, or on willow stumps around the 

 tops of which young green sprouts had grown out again, the top 

 of the stump itself making an excellent base for the nest. I found 

 many such stumps in the creek bottom, cut off about three or 

 three and a half feet from the ground. With the characteristic 

 laziness of the native Arizonian, I presume, they found it easier to 

 cut them at that height, as it obviated bending their backs to a cer- 

 tain extent. These young willow trees were from five to six inches 

 in diameter, and were used for stringers or rafters on their adobe 

 huts, to support the heavy dirt-covered roofs. I did not find a 

 single nest directly on the ground ; usually they were from two and 

 a half to three and a half feet above it, and seldom more than five 



