NORTH AMERICAN ttll <., : 



"This Gnatcatcher was first described by Mr. William Brewster, from specimen* 

 collected by Mr. F. Stephens, near Riverside, San Bernardino county, California. 

 March 28, 1878. "A nest and four eggs of this species have recently been obtained 

 from Mr. Stephens, to whom the credit belongs for the discovery of the first speci- 

 mens. These were taken near the town of San Bernardino, California, on May 2, 

 1887, and are now in the National Museum collection (Catalogue No. 23,294). The 

 nest of P. calif ornica, like that of P. plumbea Baird, from Arizona Territory, differs 

 radically in its structure from that of its Eastern relative, /' rnrulcn (I. inn.), which 

 is. too well known to ornithologists to require description. It lacks entirely the 

 artistic finish of the lichen-covered structure of the former, and resembles more in 

 shape certain forms of the nest of the Summer Yellow Warbler, Dnnlroica astlta 

 (Gml.), and the American Redstart, Sctophaga rutidUa (Linn.). The nest is cone- 

 shaped, built in the forks of a small shrub, a species of mahogany, Coleogyne 

 ramosessima (Torr.), I think, only two feet from the ground, and it is securely fas- 

 tened to several of the twigs among which it is placed. Its walls are about half an 

 inch in thickness. The material of which the nest is composed, is well quilted to- 

 gether and makes a compact and solid structure. Externally the nest is composed 

 principally of hemp-like vegetable fiber mixed with small curled-up leaves of the 

 white sage, Eurotia lanata, plant-down, and fragments of spiders' webs. Inside the 

 nest is lined with the same hemp-like fiber, only much finer, and a few feathers. The 

 cavity of the nest is cup-shaped and rather deep. Externally the nest measures two 

 and a half inches in diameter by three and one-fourth inches in depth. Compared 

 with a nest of Polioptila plumbea Baird, now before me, from Arizona Territory, it 

 seems much better constructed and also somewhat larger. I took three nests of the 

 latter species near Tucson, Arizona, during the months of May and June, 1872. Two 

 of these were placed in bunches of mistletoe, probably Pliorcdcndron flavcsccns, grow- 

 ing on mesquite trees from twelve to twenty feet from the ground; and one of them 

 is described in the 'History of North American Birds,' by Baird, Brewer and Ridg- 

 way, Volume III, page 502. The third nest was placed in a crotch of a cholla cactus. 

 The ground-color of the eggs of the Polioptila calif ornica Brewster is bright light 

 green, much more pronounced than in the eggs of either P. carulca and P. plumb-n. 

 now before me. They are covered with minute spots of a brownish-red color dis- 

 tributed irregularly over the entire surface of the egg, but nowhere so thick as to 

 hide the ground-color. These eggs measure ,50x.45, .58x.45, .57x.45 and .57x.44 

 inches."* 



754. TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE. Myddestes townsendii (Aud.) Geog. Dist. 

 Western United States, from the Plains to the Pacific. 



So far as I am aware, Mr. Wilbur F. Lamb took the first known eggs of Town- 

 send's Fly-catching Thrush. This was in Summit county, Colorado, July, 1876, at 

 an altitude of about ten thousand feet. The nest was placed in the upper bank of a 

 miner's ditch near Blue River; it was partly concealed by overhanging roots, yet 

 rendered conspicuous by the loose, swaying material of which it was composed. Mr. 

 T. M. Trippe found a nest of this species in San Juan county, Colorado, July 9, at 

 an altitude of 10,500 feet; it was built in a little cranny in a bank, and contained four 

 eggs in which incubation had just begun. Dr. Coues describes a nest taken by Mr. 

 G. Smith, of Buffalo Creek, Jefferson county, Colorado. This was found June 18, 

 1883, and was built in the end of a hollow log; it was about three feet off the ground 



* Major Chas. E. Bendire, U. S. A. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mua., 1887, pp. 549-550. 



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