206 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



When working, the male would fly back and 

 forth from the ground to the nest, carrying his 

 bits of plant stem, oak blossom, and other fine 

 stuff. He worked so rapidly that it kept me 

 busy recording his visits. He once went to the 

 nest four times in four minutes ; at another time, 

 seventeen times in a little over an hour. Some- 

 times he stayed only half a minute ; when he 

 stayed three minutes, it was so unusual that I 

 recorded it. He worked spasmodically, how- 

 ever. "One day he came seventeen times in one 

 hour, but during the next half hour came only 

 five times. The birds seemed to divide their 

 mornings into quite regular periods. When I 

 awoke at half past five I would hear them at 

 the pepper-trees breakfasting ; and some of them 

 were generally there as late as eight o'clock. 

 From eight to ten they worked with a will, 

 though the visits usually fell off after half past 

 nine. It was when working in this more delib- 

 erate way that the male would go to his perch 

 on an adjoining tree and preen himself, catch 

 flies, or sing between his visits. Once he sat on 

 the limb in front of the nest for nearly ten 

 minutes. By ten o'clock I found that I might 

 as well go to watch other birds, as little would 

 be going on with the phainopeplas ; and they 

 often flew off for a lunch of peppers. 



Just as the island nest was about done it 

 was destroyed ! I found it on the ground under 



