68 Cooper on Nest and Eggs of two Western Birds. 



Helmintluyphaga ruficapilla, Lanivireo solitarms, Collurio ludoincianus, and 

 Zonotrichia leucophr]is. It shoiild be borne in mind, however, that every 

 species is very much more local in the West, where modifications in 

 topographical details are intricate, involving very great variations of cli- 

 mate and vegetation within a small compass of territory, than in the East, 

 where the whole country presents a great uniformity of surface, thus al- 

 lowing a much more general dispersion of vegetable and animal life. 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF HUTTON'S VIEEO 

 {VIREO HUTTONI) AND THE GRAY TITMOUSE {LOPHO- 

 PHANES INORNATUS) WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR 

 NESTS AND EGGS. 



BY WILLIAM A. COOPER. 



Hutton's Vireo ( Vh'eo huttoni) breeds in the vicinity of Santa 

 Cruz, tliougli not in abundance. Retiring in habits, their nests and 

 eggs are rarely found. April 7, 1874, I found a nest placed ten 

 feet from the ground, suspended from a dead branch of a Negundo, 

 containing thi'ee eggs incubated about five days. March 30, 1875, 

 I found anotlier nest placed eight feet from the ground, suspended 

 from the small twigs of a Frangula. The bii'd showed little signs 

 of fear, and would not leave the nest till I almost touched her ; 

 then she flew to a tree near by, and uttered a single note, tivea, re- 

 peated every three or four seconds. When I took the nest she 

 hopped around me from twig to twig, venting her sorrow in a plain- 

 tive twik, twea ; tivik, twea. 



The nest — a neat, compact structure, composed of fine vegetable 

 fibres, bits of paper, and grasses covered on the outside with green 

 and gi'ay mosses, lined with fine grasses — measures 3.25in ches in 

 diameter outside, 1.75 inside ; depth 2.25 outside, 1.50 inside. 



The eggs, four in number, are white (a delicate blush-color be- 

 fore blown), marked with minute dots of reddish-brown, more nu- 

 merous toward the larger end. ^They measure respectively, .70 x .52, 

 .70 X .51, .09 X .51, .08x52. Two other nests were found, each 

 containing four eggs. They were placed, one in a Negundo, thirty 

 feet high, the other at the extremity of an oak limb, twenty-five feet 

 from the ground. Of the latter the female was so unsuspicious that 

 when caught and removed from the nest she immediately returned 

 to it. 



