228 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [17:5— May, 1920 



The nest begins with a round, bulging upper end. It narrows 

 after an inch or two and then widens again into a long pocket. A 

 small doorway, just large enough for the parent birds to go through 

 is made on the south side of the pocket so the cold northeast 

 storms will not find a way in. Sometimes one may find three doors 

 in one nest. Way down deep in the pocket, where they are hidden 

 from sight, the dainty white eggs are laid, on a soft blanketed 

 bed of wool or plant down. The young birds remain in the nest 

 until they are full-feathered. They stay about the home tree 

 for several weeks, sitting on a twig at night, snuggled together in a 

 row, like peas or pussy willows on a stem, with a parent on either 

 side as sentinels. The birds look very much like round balls 

 of gray down with just a glimpse of the tiny bill at one side and 

 the tail on the other. They are always hungry and seem never 

 to be satisfied. They eat all the harmful scales of fruit trees and 

 vines. Wherever the black scale is found the little bush-tit 

 will be also and working as hard to get rid of it just as though it 

 were his duty. Therefore it is very useful and should be pro- 

 tected from harm. 



* The Flower Land — California 



Pauline Kirkhuff 



No land is more full of colorful bloom than California. Here 

 the casual tourist finds a joy in the miles of gold and purple and 

 blue where the delight of the serious botanist is equally satisfied; 

 for here and everywhere are blossoms which though perhaps not 

 blushing unseen, are as yet unnamed. 



California's wide variety of climate and altitude and soil offer 

 opportunity for a wider range of plant life than almost any other 

 region. From the desert with its yucca shafts holding high their 

 waxen bells, the many forms of cacti, sage and greasewood to the 

 fertile valleys flowing as with molten copper and gold and blue 

 when spring is new. With the rich foothill slopes all purple with 

 brodiaea and aspiring poppies, blue-eyed cream-cups, tidy-tips, 

 godetias and myriads of other blooms to set the heart of the artist 

 and the poet a thrill, and inspire something of despair, for only 

 God can paint such scenes as these. The mountains have their 

 gift to offer»in rich toned pentstemons, pyrolas, mints and Wash- 

 ington lilies or the blood red glow of the snow plant. Climbing 



